Ladies' On Ice: The Showcase Event

Cohen insists that her past mistakes have not been, as is often suggested, a matter of nerves, but of undisciplined training habits. After the Salt Lake Games, when she had a disastrous free skate to fall out of medal contention, she split with her longtime coach, John Nicks and sojourned from L.A. to the East Coast. She spent stints with two prominent coaches, the second with Sarah Hughes coach, Robin Wagner. Wagner tried to instill in Cohen the importance of endless repetitions to attain constancy in her routines, an approach that helped earn Hughes the upset gold in Salt Lake.

But last winter Cohen returned to Nicks to put the finishing touches on her Olympic dream. Nicks suggests much of the criticism of Sasha has been unfair, given that she has won silver medals in the last two world championships. "You don't skate badly and win silver," he told NEWSWEEK. Cohen certainly showed some grit in winning her first U.S. championship last month while battling off a flu bug. But without Michelle Kwan in the field, Cohen wasn't facing anybody who could match her talent or the kind of pressure that awaits her at the Palavela rink this week in Torino.

For the past week she has been practicing in the mountains away from the distractions of the big city ("a week that felt like a month") and had a shaky practice yesterday upon her return. She fell on a jump during warm-ups and glided through her short program without bothering to take her jumps. "It happens," she said afterwards. "We're not robots." Perhaps if she can be just little more robotic and not let the emotion of the evening sway her off her feet, Sasha could grab the ultimate prize -- which, of course, means becoming an American idol.

Mao Asada: The only important thing you need to know about Japan's Mao Asada, who this season, at age 15, won figure skating's Grand Prix championship by defeating Slutskaya, is that she is not here in Torino. Under recent age restrictions, she is too young to compete. That is very good news for the field.

The Japanese Women Who Are Here: Even without Asada, the Japanese boast the deepest squad in the competition. All three of Japan's competitors -- Fumie Suguri, Miko Ando and Shizuka Arakawa -- finished in the top 10 at last year's world championships. Suguri, 25, is the oldest, most experienced and most consistent. Ando, at 18, is the youngest, but still a two-time national champion. At 14 she became the only woman skater ever to land a quad in competition, a move that has been relegated to history -- too much risk with too little reward -- by the new scoring system. But if you like to place bets based on practice sessions, then Shizuka Arakawa, 24, might get a nod. She is very inconsistent though, having won the worlds in 2004, the first Japanese world champion since the great Midori Ito 10 years earlier. But then she delivered a poor ninth-place showing in defense of her title. Arakawa is extremely athletic and can create a torrid pace. When she broke Kwan's hold on the world title, she threw two triple-triple-double combinations and another triple-triple into the very beginning of her program. If Arakawa can do it again this week, she could be Japan's first-ever Olympic champion.

Carolina Kostner: She is tall and athletic -- her father was captain of the Italian national hockey team -- and she won a bronze behind Slutskaya and Cohen at last year's worlds. More important, she carried the Italian flag at Opening Ceremonies and will certainly skate as the hometown favorite. That remains a factor that can still sway the judges on those artistic marks. If she sometimes seems to lack passion, perhaps the fans can deliver that for her. A good performance in the free skate -- to "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi -- could bring the house down.