In Short, Success And a Long Night

After Poor Sleep, Leader Cohen Rests

TURIN, Italy, Feb. 22 -- We've seen figure skaters competing without coaches, but this was a new one. There was John Nicks, the longtime coach of U.S. skater Sasha Cohen, standing rinkside Wednesday during the ladies' practice session, the one set aside for the top six on the eve of what is widely considered the biggest event in the Winter Olympics.

As the skaters ran through their programs, Nicks pulled out a magazine on powerboating, setting it on the ledge in front of him. He put on his reading glasses. He rested his elbows on the wall and flipped through it.

Nicks, as it turned out, had no one to coach. Cohen, who is leading a competition in which she, Russian Irina Slutskaya and Japanese Shizuka Arakawa are separated by .71 of a point, took the day off to rest. Her surprising absence set off a flurry of speculation about her health -- she wore an ice pack near her groin after Tuesday's performance -- that Nicks later dismissed.

Cohen, he said, was merely tired after a poor night's sleep. She said during a late breakfast that she had tossed and turned until after 3 a.m. and preferred to delay her practice until Thursday morning. The free skate begins at 7 that evening.

"We didn't get out of here [after Tuesday's performance] until 12:30, quarter to one," Nicks said after the late-afternoon practice. "She told me she couldn't get to sleep. She was excited and hyper; she knew she had done well.

"She was tired. She agreed to rest today and tomorrow have a short practice and try to be energized."

Cohen, 21, who on Tuesday attributed the ice pack to standard maintenance for a veteran skater, might have lacked energy for practice, but there was plenty of cackling through the Palavela from other sources. In an event with a history of rewarding underdogs and tough-minded teens, two American youngsters have declared themselves ready to pounce on a medal should any of the top skaters falter.

Kimmie Meissner, 16, the youngest skater in the U.S. delegation, sits in fifth place with 59.40 points, 6.62 points behind the third-place Arakawa. Emily Hughes, the younger sister of the 2002 Winter Games champion Sarah Hughes, is in seventh place, 8.94 points behind.

"I think they all have a chance," said Carol Heiss Jenkins, who coaches Japan's Miki Ando, who is in eighth place. "That is one thing about this new system . . . it makes it very interesting. You can move way up."

With his 10th-to-fourth leap in the free skate of the men's competition, American Evan Lysacek illustrated the possibilities under the new, points-based scoring system when a skater skates brilliantly and others collapse.

Hughes, 17, has the impressive bloodlines, but Meissner appears to possess the most legitimate shot. Both, though, stand far enough back that they, like Lysacek, would need failures from others to rise.

Meissner could make up significant ground if she hits the two triple-triple jump combinations she is planning. She was one of two skaters to land a triple-triple in the short program; the other was 16-year-old Georgian Elene Gedevanishvili, who finished sixth. Meissner, however, said she won't try a triple axel, a rarely landed jump she hit at the 2005 national championships.