“I knew I wanted to be at the Olympics one day,” Sasha Cohen said, “even though I didn’t fully understand what it was. I just knew this was when the whole world stopped.”
It was 1992. And Sasha had just seen Kristi Yamaguchi win the gold medal. She and a million other young girls were watching Kristi. And I bet all of them thought ‘boy I’d really like to be in the olympics for ice skating’.
So why was Sasha different from the other million girls out there? I wanted to know what it was because it’s the secret to what made her the best in the world.
Let’s back up to where her story really began:
“So what was the thing,” I asked, “Were you just like this incredible, natural athlete as a 3 year old.”
It was the exact opposite of that, actually.
“I was basically the most hyperactive child. I destroyed the house. And my mom decided to put me in gymnastics for 3 hours a day to use up my energy,” she said.
Sasha was a rambunctious child. And she needed an outlet.
“Once I started doing gymnastics, my family got a docile, well-behaved child. And from there I started ice skating. And I fell in love with it.”
“How much in that very beginning period was there natural talent versus skill,” I asked.
“I don’t know if I had a lot of natural talent. I had a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of energy to burn. I loved to run, climb trees, cause trouble. Skating allowed me to develop myself athletically. And artistically.”
There was structure as well. There was always a plan to get to the next level.
And plans for being in the Olympic cycle started early.
So what was the THING that made Sasha different from all those million of other young girls?
“I think I have a laser like focus when I find something I’m interested in,” Sasha said, “I latch on like a dog and I don’t let go. I’m obstinate. It’s repeat, repeat, repeat. And when I found ice skating it became obsessive. It was this incredible sense of purpose.”
It was a single minded focus. She took ballet and pilates. She was homeschooled. Almost nothing else mattered besides ice skating. She made it to nationals when she was 12. And she had a huge shot at making it to the Olympics one day.
“There’s promise, but there’s hundreds of girls that have promise. And you don’t know.”
And in sports everything is unknown. The timing might not be right. Or you could get seriously injured. And Sasha did. She broke her back. She was only 15. And it was right before a national competition to make it on a team for the Olympics. She had to withdraw from the competition completely.
“How did you break your back,” I asked.
“Through falling. Repetitive stress on the same point from landing jumps and lay back spins. And I was growing. It just whacked everything out of place.”
“Did you cry,” I asked.
“I’m sure I cried. I think early on I learned to put up walls. And not let people see how I felt. You hold yourself together, but I remember watching people compete, earning spots on the world team, and just being crushed I wasn’t there. And then there’s doubt that sits with you.”
She had to take 3 months off. But she healed and got right back on the rink to continue her pursuit. And I was shocked. I’d never do something again if I broke my back doing that thing. If I were her, I wouldn’t have been able to look at another ice rink again as long as I lived. I wanted to know why she decided to go back.
“Because once you understand what the Olympics are and what they mean, it’s consuming. There’s nothing else.”
And I learned that timing is everything in sports. You only have a small window of time every 4 years to be considered.
“You just hope it’s right. It’s like the eclipse. You hope it happens at the right time when the Olympics are there.”
Sasha missed the 2002 window. I wondered if she was scared when she first got back on the ice after breaking her back.
“I wasn’t scared. I was trying to be smart.”
She didn’t have time to get hurt and be set back again. So she took some extra time. And came back slowly.
“And then I trained my ass off. I was in physical therapy, pilates, ballet, skating and off ice conditioning. It was from morning until night. And then I would come home and watch the videos that my mom would record of my jumps and my program.”
She was in a relentless pursuit of the Olympics. Nothing was going to stop her. And she continued to put in the work.
“You have to put in the work. And to preserve. You can get good at anything if you put in the time. And you have discipline and the tenacity.”
There’s not many people in the world that learn to be the best in the world at something. There’s something extra you have to put in everyday. And I think Sasha learned that from a very young age.
“What you need is to be obsessive. And it’s not healthy because it’s at the expense of something and usually everything else. And it’s the unhealthy, obsessive quality where it’s so easy to just not have friends, to not be social, to put everything into one thing. It’s the obsessiveness which I think creates greatness.”
And she’s right. Not many people have this quality in them to go after something like nothing else matters. It can affect a lot of other areas of your life.
Sasha was relentless. She put total focus into ice skating. She thought of everything that would help her make it happen.
“Whatever you’re obsessive about, whatever means more to you than anything else is where you will put your time.”
In 2006 in Turin, Italy, it was Sasha’s time. She won the silver medal.
“I felt like I was on fire. It was this incredible sixty or ninety seconds of holy shit, I am on top of the world. I did this. This is incredible. It’s a high that I’ve never had before.”
10 years after this moment, Sasha decided she was done with ice skating. She was ready to be a “tadpole in the ocean”. She was ready to reinvent. She went to Columbia University. And now works for Morgan Stanley.
I hope this episode helps someone who feels stuck. Because I feel like Sasha really laid out the formula to finding your passion. And how to go after it with a relentless pursuit.
Links and Resources
Follow Sasha on Facebook+ Instagram+ Twitter
Also Mentioned
Kristi Yamaguchi
Anders Ericsson
Malcolm Gladwell
Richard Feynman
The Weight of Gold Documentary
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