Joannie Rochette was performing before a ‘home-town’ audience in Kitchener, Ontario and the Canadian skater did not disappoint. She won the Skate Canada International figure skating competition:

“… Rochette landed only four triples in her free skate, and one of them she barely managed to save, but it was still enough to maintain the massive lead she had after the short program.

“It’s one of those programs where you have to fight through everything but it’s good to know I have that in me,” said Rochette. “I want to make sure every element is right on for next time. I wasn’t totally satisfied with it. I was happy to win but disappointed a bit with the performance.”

link to the article by Dan Barnes for Canwest News Services

[Photo by Harry How/Getty Images]

One of the premier events of the Winter Olympics is the individual figure skating. This year, it was anticipated that the American women’s team would have former Olympian Sasha Cohen trying for a spot. However, that might be prevented by injury. The American skaters are in the process of vying for inclusion on the team.

“… The United States team has no clear-cut Olympic medal contender in women’s singles for the first time in decades. At this point in the lead-up to a Winter Games, the United States team has usually identified its figure-skating sweetheart. And more often than not, the top American female figure skater goes on to become the face of the Games in the United States.”

link to the article by Juliet Macur for The New York Times

Sasha Cohen has an injury which forces her to withdraw from Skate America. This is a setback to Sasha Cohen’s goal of being on the U.S. Olympic team, going to Vancouver in 2010:

“… Just five days before she was to compete in the short program at Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y., she withdrew, citing nagging tendinitis in her right calf. The injury also caused Cohen to pull out of a Grand Prix event last month in Paris. She has not skated in competition since placing third at the world championships in March 2006.”

link to the article by Juliet Macur for The New York Times

[Byron Purvis/AdMedia Photo via Newscom Photo via Newscom]

As Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen nears her time to compete again, her return to figure skating is being followed closely. And there are questions as to why she is returning:

“… As Cohen, 25, prepares for next weekend’s Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y., her first competition in 44 months, the sport’s amateur psychologists question: Is her return prompted by some deep-seeded and primal need to erase the heartbreak of the 2006 Turin Olympics, where she led after a nearly flawless short program only to stumble to the silver medal in the long program? Or a compulsive need for attention? Or to satisfy the commercial interests of her numerous corporate sponsors?

Cohen is amused by the speculation…”

link to the article by Scott M. Reid for The Orange County Register

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

Miki Ando is reaching peak form for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. She made a statement with her performance at the NHK Trophy:

“Japan’s Miki Ando won the women’s event at the NHK Trophy in Nagano, overtaking American Ashley Wagner in the free skate to win her second Grand Prix of the season.

Ando, who won the Rostelecom Cup in Russia, landed six triple jumps in her routine to Cleopatra to finish with 162.55 points. Russia’s Alena Leonova was second with 160.85 while Wagner was third with 155.99 points.”

link: Ando grabs 2nd Grand Prix gold in Japan

For Miki Ando, the triple jumps are routine now. It pushes the level of competition for the Olympics. Miki Ando’s competitors know that these elements will be in her Olympics program and they must match her.

Catherine Forsythe

At the 2006 Olympic Games, Sasha Cohen was one of the best skaters in the world. She was the silver medallist for the United States. Sasha Cohen is trying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in Vancouver in 2010. She has been away from competitive skating for three years:

“… She announced her comeback in May. “I’ve realized skating is my purpose in life for the moment,” she says.

Make no mistake: The purpose of her comeback is to qualify for a third Olympics. To do so, she must secure one of just two spots for the U.S. women in Vancouver.”

link to the article by Vicki Michaelis for USA TODAY

[Byron Purvis/AdMedia Photo via Newscom]

Some athletes have to go to a different city to train. For Kim Ya-Na, following her Olympic dream meant leaving her country and her culture. She left South Korea for Toronto, with the hope of Olympic gold at the Vancouver Winter Games:

“… The road has been a long one for Kim, the first Korean to medal at an ISU Championship when she took silver at the 2005 world junior championships and bronze at the 2007 world championships.

But she believes her move to Canada in 2006 has done a lot to improve her confidence. She is is (sic) now being coached by Canada’s 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser in Toronto.”

link to the article by Emmeline Moore for CTV

Sasha Cohen was the silver medalist for the United States in the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin. She is returning to competitive figure skating and hoping to qualify for the American team that will compete in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  First, she will have to qualify at the national level:

“… “My main goal is January: to be absolutely awesome (at nationals) and to go to the Olympics and have the performance of my life there,” she said last week.”

link to the article by Philip Hersh for the Chicago Tribune

link to the Sasha Cohen website

additional link:  Sasha Cohen ready to jump back into competition

Sixteen-year-old American figure skater Mirai Nagasu, the 2008 U.S. National Champion, has had a chronic ankle problem that could have ended her skating career. She also has had coaching changes that have been scrutinized by the figure skating community.

In addition to all the stresses of being an elite, world class skater, Mirai Nagasu is preparing for a try at Olympic gold and dealing with teenage angst:

“…”There are always moments when I think about leaving skating, but when I think about that I’m not very smart and I’m not very pretty and there’s nothing else that stands out about me besides my skating,” she said, though she certainly comes across as bright and funny and is unquestionably attractive.

“So it’s like the love of my life. It’s like loving someone. You want to break up sometimes but if you get past those hardships everything will come together.”"

link to the article by Helene Elliott for the Los Angeles Times

[Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images]