Come back, Sasha Cohen. Please.

One can only hope Sasha Cohen was serious when she said two months ago that she wanted to return to competition for the 2010 Olympic season.

Because U.S. women's figure skating can use help.

That was apparent when the women's competition in the Grand Prix "regular season" ended Saturday in Japan.

It was, indeed, the end: No U.S. woman has qualified for the Grand Prix final for just the fourth time in the event's 14-season history.

And this is the second U.S. shutout in the last three years.

Now, it may be nearly three seasons since Cohen finished second in the 2006 Olympics (pictured at left with her silver medal) and third in the 2006 world championships.

And she may never have transformed her eye-catching style and striking potential into two clean performances in a major competition.

Yet Cohen won three world medals (with two fourths) and finished first and second in the two Grand Prix finals she made.

And she still is barely 24 years old.

And the Cohen of the 2006 worlds -- implosion in the free skate notwithstanding -- is a better skater than anyone else the U.S. has now.

The three baby ballerinas who dazzled last season -- Rachael Flatt, 16, and Mirai Nagasu and Caroline Zhang, both 15 -- all clearly lack the maturity and consistency to be serious medal contenders on the senior circuit for the next two years.

And the two 19-year-old veterans who appeared ready to take over after 2006, Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, each has struggled badly for the last two seasons.

Flatt skated more than respectably in both her Grand Prix events this season, finishing second and fourth, but that left her just eighth in the final standings, with the top six making the Grand Prix final. Alissa Czisny, her elegance undone as always by badly flawed skating, was ninth overall.

Zhang wound up 11th in the standings with individual meet finishes of third and fifth. Reigning U.S. champion Nagasu, trying to cope with a growth spurt, was 17th after finishing fifth at Skate America and eighth at the NHK Trophy in Japan. Meissner, the 2006 world champion, had two eighths and placed 21st overall.

So we have Cohen, who told reporters after an Oct. 1 rehearsal for a made-for-TV event that she had resumed training and would put her acting career on hold until after the Vancouver Olympics.

The three best scores of Cohen's career are better than those of any other U.S. skater ever.

The six best scores of her career (including those at the 2006 worlds and Olympics) are better than those of any U.S. skater except the Meissner who once was a contender.

Now, I understand that the new ding-'em attitude among skating judges has made high scores more difficult to get since 2006.

But U.S. figure skating officials still should roll out a red carpet for Cohen's return.

Even if she has not been seen in competition since March 2006, Cohen still looks like the only U.S. woman capable of walking up the red carpet to the awards stand at the 2010 Winter Games.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times