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Sasha Cohen performs during the free skate portion of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Cohen won her first U.S. crown on Saturday, beating Kimmie Meissner. Both skaters will represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.

When she spins, she looks like that ballerina in the music box. And when she did her spiral sequence, about 30 seconds of skating on one leg, the other held high above her head, the audience gasped in delight.

Her only mistakes were step outs on a triple toe loop jump and triple salchow, both minor. Especially since she was the only woman in the last warmup to complete her program without taking a spill on the ice.

She picked up one stuffed animal after another as she made her way off the ice, stopping to hug a fan who draped a red, white and blue scarf around her neck.

“You figure you train all year for this, you’re so nervous, so you might as well stand on the ice and enjoy it for more than five seconds,” Cohen said. “I realize everything I have been through and what I have done, appreciate the audience. It’s nice to have just 30 seconds of relief.”

Meissner did some of the toughest tricks of the night with seven triple jumps, four of which were in combination. But there was little in between the jumps, and her spins were slow and far from Olympic class.

And, with 15 seconds left in her program, the girl whose trademark is a triple axel fell on a double.

Still, Meissner looked pleased when she finished, clapping her hands and grinning as she skated off the ice.

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“I’m very pleased with my performance, I felt I gave it all I had,” Meissner said. “I’m sort of relaxed, but if I could, I would like to do the last element again.”