Sasha Cohen

Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen (born October 26, 1984) is a retired American figure skater.

Cohen rose to prominence in the skating community during the 2000 U.S. Championships.

Just up from juniors, Cohen was first in the short program and finished second overall after the free skate, provisionally qualifying for the senior World team.

A loophole in the ISU's age rules at the time would have allowed her to compete at the senior World Championships if she medaled at the World Junior Championships but she finished 6th at the junior event.

Cohen did not compete at the 2001 U.S. Nationals due to a stress fracture in her back.

She resumed full training in June 2001.

Cohen graduated from Futures High School in Mission Viejo, California in 2002.

Cohen won the silver medal at the 2002 U.S. championships, earning her a trip to the Olympics.

Cohen competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, finishing 4th.

She also finished 4th at the 2002 World Championships, held in Nagano.

Cohen was coached by John Nicks in California.

In the summer of 2002, Cohen moved to the East Coast to train with Tatiana Tarasova at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, Connecticut.

She won her first ISU Grand Prix event at the 2002 Skate Canada and then won the 2002 Trophée Lalique.

She won the silver medal at the 2002 Cup of Russia.

These three placements earned her a spot to the 2002–03 Grand Prix Final, where she became the champion.

At the 2003 U.S. championships she won the bronze medal, and at the 2003 World Championships, held in Washington, D.C., Cohen placed 4th, repeating her placement in the previous season.

Her best season was 2003–04, when she took gold at the 2003 Skate America, at the 2003 Skate Canada (setting a world record in the short program) and at the 2003 Trophée Lalique and won silver at the 2003–04 Grand Prix Final.

In late December 2003, she changed coaches and began training with Robin Wagner in Hackensack, New Jersey.

She placed second at both the 2004 U.S. Championships and the 2004 World Championships, getting a medal at Worlds for the first time in her career.

In the 2004–05 season, Cohen withdrew from her Grand Prix events due to a recurring back injury.

In late December 2004, Cohen decided to return to California and train again with her first coach John Nicks.

In 2005, Cohen published her autobiography, Fire on Ice.

She placed 2nd at the 2005 U.S. championships in Portland and the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, Russia.

Cohen started her Olympic season by placing first at the Campbell's International Figure Skating Challenge.

Soon after she withdrew from Skate America due to a hip injury.

She took second place at Trophée Eric Bompard, where she fell on a triple salchow during her free skate.

She is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World Championship medalist, the 2003 Grand Prix Final Champion, and the 2006 U.S. Champion.

She is known for her artistry, flexibility and body lines, and musical interpretation.

, Cohen is the most recent American woman to medal individually in figure skating at the Olympics.

Cohen was born in Westwood, California, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Her nickname "Sasha" is a Russian diminutive of "Alexandra".

Her mother, Galina Cohen (née Feldman), is a Jewish immigrant from Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union and a former ballet dancer.

Her father, Roger Cohen, is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law and formerly a law partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.

Cohen has a younger sister, Natalia (nicknamed "Natasha").

She understands and can speak Russian, but refuses to speak it in public.

The autobiography was republished in 2006 with a new chapter on the 2006 season.

A gymnast from an early age, Cohen switched to figure skating when she was seven years old, but it wasn't until she was eleven that she began to take the sport seriously.

One of her early skating coaches was Victor Yelchin, father of late actor Anton Yelchin.

Cohen graduated from Columbia University in 2016 with a degree in political science.

As a university student, she has used the name Alex rather than Sasha.