2002 U.S. Nationals

Senior Ladies

Prior to Nationals the general expectation was that Michelle Kwan and Sarah Hughes would contend for the top two places and Sasha Cohen and Angela Nikodinov would vie for the bronze medal.  Apparently someone forgot to tell the game plan to Cohen who came to Nationals skating to win.  By the luck of the draw, three of the top four ladies skated in the first of three warmup groups with Cohen getting her turn about an hour later in the last.

Kwan, skating second, gave a strong and confident performance of her Rachmoninov Piano Concerto No. 3 short program.  The triple Lutz - double toe combination and the triple flip were solid and the program was well presented.  Her double Axel was clean but landed on the toe and her footwork sequence was a little slow.   The audience responded with a standing ovation and the judges with seven first place marks.  For the first time this season, her father, Danny, sat with her in Kiss and Cry during the reading of the marks.  At international competitions this season the team leader has been sitting with Kwan in Kiss and Cry in the absence of a coach, but at Nationals there is no team leader so as she exited the ice she asked her father to join her, which he did.  Following her performance she said, "Just to do a good performance is very satisfying.  I felt a little shaky on the double Axel.   There's things I could make a little better, a little stronger."

Two skaters later, Hughes took the ice.  Performing to Gounod's Ave Maria she skated a clean program landing triple Lutz - double loop, triple flip and the double Axel.  Her jumps which frequently tend to get a little cheated looked fully rotated this time and her combination spin was the best of the top four contenders.  She ended up with marks of second through fourth to finish third in the short program.  She summed up her program saying, "I felt really great.   I was really focused. It's nice when things come together in a program.  This is definitely the best short program I've done this year.  I don't think I could have been better, at this point in my skating."

Hughes was immediately followed by Nikodinov who gave an emotional performance.  Her triple Lutz - double toe loop combination and double Axel were solid while the triple flip was clean but a little off balance.  Her combination spin was well executed but was the least difficult of the top four ladies.  One judge placed her first, but the remainder of the panel gave her marks of second through fourth and she ended up fourth for the day.  The audience responded with a big standing ovation that was acknowledged by the teary-eyed skater.  After leaving Kiss and Cry she said, "I'm just relieved right now.  I just went out there, and nothing really came that easy.  It's not that I felt a lot of pressure, but I had a lot of support tonight.  It was a little overwhelming at first, but I took an extra little second to gather my thoughts and concentrate on what I had to think about for this short program.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.  It's been a long season and 'm just going to look forward and keep my concentration on the free program."

Following Nikodinov's performance more than an hour of next-generation hopefuls such as Jennifer Kirk, Ann Patrice McDonough, and Beatrisa Liang, and current-generation never-were-and-never-will-be's ensued.  Finally, in the last warmup group, skating 14th out of 18 skaters Cohen, who was unable to compete in 2001 due to injury, took the ice.

Skating to Sentimental Waltz by E. Doga she landed a triple flutz - double toe loop combination and a solid triple flip and double Axel.   Her combination spin was one of the best of the group, perhaps only slightly behind Hughes'.  The performance was well done and she too received a large standing ovation from the audience.  One judge placed her first on the strength of the technical merit mark but the rest of the panel gave her marks of second through fourth.  By the slimmest of margins (a tie breaker in total ordinals of the majority) she placed ahead of Hughes and ended up second in the short program.  In the post-event press conference she said, "I was just focusing on my performance and doing what I've been doing in practice.  [I just focussed] on the pattern that I had in my head of what I needed to do, and I knew that if I just stuck to that, that everything would work out."   Added her coach, John Nicks (with tongue in cheek), "My young protege, the beautiful Miss Cohen -- when she skates like this, everything is forgiven."   [Note: Cohen has a reputation as a strong willed, independent minded athlete that Nicks frequently makes reference to.]

Skating her Scheherazade routine, Kwan gave one of her better performances in recent years.  Many observers feel that Kwan peaked at U.S. Nationals in 1998 and then slipped into neutral for the next two years.  To some extent, the last 18 months have been a quest to return to the lofty accomplishment of her 1998 National performances.   While the 1998 free skate in Philadelphia remains one for the ages, against which all her performances have since been judged, this year's performance came close.  It certainly was the best of the season thus far and earned her unanimous first place marks, with two marks of 6.0 for presentation.  She skated clean but did not attempt a triple-triple combination and her solo triple Lutz was distinctly flutzed.  She completed a total of six triple jumps and at the end of her performance she was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation.  On her performance she said, "You work for so long, and you hope to skate with freedom.  Even though you're 100% ready and prepared, you just don't know what to expect.  When you skate you just let it all loose, regardless of how many triple I did.  Just the feeling of it is just incredible."

Next to skate was the sentimental favorite Angela Nikodinov, who had a tough act to follow.  Skating to Giselle she skated a strong first half of the program landing three triple jumps, with two in triple-double combinations, and a double Axel.   Mid-way through the program, however, she fell on triple loop and subsequently did not attack the program.  In the last third of the program she double three jumps in quick succession, the Salchow, Lutz, and toe loop.  Without those triples, any hope for a medal and an Olympic Team spot were gone and she placed fourth with eight judges placing her fourth and one fifth.  After her performance she said, "I can't say it was hard to concentrate because I was really focused in the beginning.  I had a little lean on the triple loop, but I had plenty of time to recover and regroup myself for the ending.  There's no excuse [for] missing the last jumps.  That's when conditioning comes in.  I haven't been able to get as many run-throughs as I would have liked.  What's done is done and I can't take anything back.  I just have to learn from what went wrong here."

Having garnered one first place mark in the short program, Sasha Cohen skated next with a take no prisoners attitude.  Skating to Carmen she did not attempt any triple-triple combinations nor the quad Salchow, for which she would like to be the first woman to land the jump in competition.  She landed a total of seven triple jumps; however, two of these were solo triple Salchows which is a violation of the rules and a required deduction.  The second Salchow was improvised near the end of the program to make up for having not completed the triple Lutz - triple toe loop planned at the beginning of the program, but all it did was end up costing her 0.1 in the first mark.  Her performance was a strong skate but not problem free.  The triple Lutz in her opening triple-double combination was flutzed and a solo triple Lutz had a very poor landing edge.  The second triple Salchow, while not counting, also had a small reach for the ice on the landing.  Her closing spin was a doosie, highlighting her incredible flexibility which was also on display in her connecting moves and step sequences.  She received a warm standing ovation from the audience and seven second palace marks to win the silver medal and her first trip to the Olympics.  In her best "valley-speak" after her performance she remarked, "Oh it's really exciting. (Being on the Olympic Team)  It's been a dream for a long time and it's almost like kind of I've been training so hard that I almost a little bit expected to go.   Now that's it's actually for sure, it's so exciting."  As for the second triple Salchow she explained, "We've been practicing it that way -- that way I got seven triples.  I was going to try to do the triple Lutz - triple toe, but it just didn't feel quite right, so I went safe.  I'm just really glad I had fun and I'm really good I think I have a spot [on the Olympic Team]."

Last to skate of the top four ladies was Sarah Hughes.  Her performance, set to Daphnis et Chloe and the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2, was nicely skated but not without it problems.  She landed a total of six triple jumps opening with a double Axel triple toe loop sequence.  Her triple-triple combination was popped into a triple Salchow - single loop and the following combination had a flutzed triple Lutz and a cheated toe Axel.  She went on to complete solo triple flip, loop and Lutz.  Near the end of the program she improvised a solo triple toe loop in place of a planned double Axel.  Her spins, while nicely executed and presented were no match for Cohen.  Two of the judges placed Hughes second on the strength of the second mark, but the majority of the panel placed her third, for the bronze medal and the third spot on the Olympic Team.  After a strong Grand Prix Series where she placed neck-in-neck with Kwan and even beat her at Skate Canada, Hughes was obviously disappointed having finished third.  Her coach, Robin Wagner said, "I'm not disappointed.  She's a fighter.  She's on the Olympic Team and that's what we came here to do.  Of course Sarah and my desire is always to improve each year and last year she was second so of course she's not going to be happy with third.  She's a competitor.  But as I told her, when you go to the Olympics the slate is clean, you start all over again.  Tara (Lipinski) was second when she went to the Olympics and look what happened.  We're going home and work really hard and hopefully this will give her some real great incentive."