“I’m getting older,” the 21-year-old said. “I’m the grandma leading the U.S. team.”

Cohen’s program was far from perfect, and it showed in technical marks lower than both Slutskaya and Arakawa. The landing of her double axel was curvy, and she had to fight to save it. The takeoff on her triple lutz could have been cleaner, but she made up for it in her connecting steps, transitions and spirals.

And no one sells a program better. Skating to “Dark Eyes,” a Russian folk song, she was expressive for the entire program. She made eye contact with all of the judges, as if she was skating just for them.

When she stood at the edge of the rink, just before starting her straightline footwork, she gave a little shimmy of her shoulders and the crowd roared. When her music stopped, Cohen threw her fist in the air and grinned.

“She’s been very much more mature and trained very hard,” said John Nicks, her coach since she was 12 — with a few interruptions here and there. “Tonight was a good start. It was a very good start. But it was only a start.”

Slutskaya and Arakawa won’t simply give Cohen the gold.

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Doctors weren’t sure Slutskaya would even skate again when she became ill two years ago, but she defied the odds and has been virtually unbeatable since she returned. Now she’s looking to make history: the first Russian woman to win Olympic gold and complete an unprecedented Russian sweep of the titles.

Her performance to Liszt’s peppy “Totentanz” was so perfectly in unison with the music that her spins matched the crescendos. She was so quick, she could have left the short-trackers who share the Palavela in the dust.

Her countrymen in the crowd waved flags, shouted “ROS-SI-YA! ROS-SI-YA!” and erupted in a loud ovation for her marks. Slutskaya smiled, and shook the fingers she had crossed for luck.

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Arakawa’s jumps were smooth, and her spins were high-level and high-quality. But it was her spirals that were show-stoppers. In one, she pulled her leg up to the side in the splits position. Then she let go and the leg stayed completely still, a testament to her superior strength and muscle control.

“I think I can do much better than this, but I don’t want to make my expectations too high,” the 2004 world champion said. “I just want to stay relaxed.”

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