Published June 17, 2006, in the Waukesha Freeman

Story by Matthew Webber

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – With skates and books in hand they approached her, young girls in line for the chance to meet one of their heroes. They shuffled, inched forward, around the shelves and tables, dozens of figure skaters, readers and fans.

Along with their moms, they stretched from the door to the author: Sasha Cohen, Olympic silver medalist, signing their books and smiling with them in their photographs.

The internationally famous figure skater was in street clothes, in a Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Brookfield on June 10, practically in their backyards, promoting her autobiography, “Sasha Cohen: Fire On Ice.”

For Cohen and her fans – most of them younger than Cohen, many of them participants in summer skating programs at the Pettit National Ice Center – the book signing truly seemed like a special event, as whispers of "This is so cool" and "I got her autograph" spread like a game of Telephone.

It may not compare to an Olympic competition – Cohen says nothing can – but, as she also told The Freeman, her increasingly full schedule of book signings, movie rehearsals and other off-ice events offers different risks and rewards, all of which she looks forward to exploring.

The Freeman: I wanted to ask how the challenges of writing a book compare to the challenges of skating competitively.

Sasha Cohen: It was a lot of fun for me, because I worked with a really talented writer, and she just really made my stories come to life. Over a whole year, we did interviews trying to remember as far back as I could, and it just came out in a really magical way, where it was my thoughts and how I felt. It's a process, I guess, just like skating is and competing is, where you have all the little pieces, you put them together and then you polish it. I think it's pretty similar in my book.

I would imagine it's very hectic, very nerve-wracking, to skate on the level that you skate at. Is there anything comparable in promoting a book or writing a book? Anything equally scary?

No, it's not quite the same. When you have one shot, and all the people watching on TV and in the arena, it's really unique, I think, to anything. And I think that's something that is only in sports. Everything else in life, there's not that cut-throat level of do-or-die.

There are a lot of professional athletes who say they don't want to be role models. But you've written a book that I think a lot of kids will read, so how do you feel about being a role model for young girls or young people in general and giving them this book?

I think it's an honor to be a role model. And every time I'm at a show or an event and a little girl comes up to me and says, “Sign my book,” or a picture dressed in a little skating outfit, it always brings me out of my little world, gives me perspective. It's just special, I think, to have that kind of impact. So it's an honor for me, and I just try to help these girls follow their dreams, guide them a little bit, whatever I can do.

If somebody came to you and they said, “I want to be a skater,” what would you tell them?

I would tell them just love it, work really hard, and keep perspective on it.

Is this book that you've written maybe one of the first steps to moving beyond skating? Maybe I'm asking what your plans are here in the next four years.

I'm actually hoping to do some acting, see where that takes me. Actually, I was doing my first small role in a movie this month and next month. So that's something different. But I think I want to take a year to really explore.

It's kind of unknown, I would imagine. You've been skating for a long time; these are new areas you hope to conquer. Is that scary? Or how do you feel going in to those things?

It is. It's a little scary, but it's also exciting to do something different than my normal, everyday rhythm that I've done for the past 10 years and to try something new. There's so many things to do out there, it kind of keeps all your senses awake to keep challenging it in a way.

Now that you're a published author, what have you been reading recently?

I try to always pick up a book that going to take me someplace new. And I loved “Kite Runner.” Right now, I'm reading a book called “A Thread of Grace,” which is about World War II. I'm halfway done, and it's amazing. But those are the books that I look for, the ones that kind of take you back somewhere, just open a door to a place or time in the world that we're just not really exposed to. So those are the kind of books I look for. They're always hard to find, but I'm looking.

Finally – and I think I have to ask this – four years from now, will we see you again in the Olympics?

You know, I would really like to be there. I want to take this year and take a little break. But then I'd really like to get back into it and keep competing, because, like I said, there's nothing that can compare to that intensity and just that high you get when you're competing.