Sasha Cohen out of Skate America; Emily Hughes in
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Sasha Cohen is out of this week’s Skate America with tendinitis.
It is the second Grand Prix event this fall from which the 2006 Olympic silver medalist has withdrawn because of the problem in her right calf.
This time, the withdrawal casts significant doubt on whether she can make a successful comeback after three seasons away from Olympic-style skating.
She will replaced at Skate America in Lake Placid, N.Y., by Emily Hughes, who finished seventh at the 2006 Olympics as an eleventh-hour replacement for an injured Michelle Kwan.
[Updated at 10:17a.m. Hughes, 20, who is taking a year off from Harvard University to train full time, missed the last two U.S. Championships with injuries. She has finished two years at Harvard.
By virtue of her 2006 Olympic medal, Cohen is an automatic qualifier for January’s U.S. Championships, at which U.S. Figure Skating will pick its two women’s singles entrants for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Hughes now will also receive a bye to nationals because the final qualifying event, Eastern Sectionals, begins just three days after Skate America. She finished second in last month’s North Atlantic Regionals, her first competition in a year.]
-- Philip Hersh
