Eric Gay / AP

Gold medlist Shizuka Arakawa, left, hugs silver medalist Sasha Cohen during medal ceremonies Thursday.

For her people, the medal was a celebration twice over. Through 14 days, in the mountains and on the ice, Japanese athletes had come up empty.

“It really took a long time,” said Kenichi Chizuka, head of Japan’s Olympic delegation. “I was very excited. When I saw her win, I cried. ... One gold is worth 10 bronzes.”

For Cohen, her silver is another reminder of potential squandered.

The successor to Michelle Kwan as national champion has all the makings of a superstar, but she can’t break through when the stakes are highest:

The 2003 and 2004 national championships. The 2004 worlds. Even the Salt Lake City Olympics. She went into the free skate with a chance to medal, if not win, and she faltered at all of them.

This event was supposed to erase those demons. In first place after the short program, she needed only four minutes to join Tara Lipinski (1998) and Sarah Hughes (2002) as Olympic champion.

Vladimir Rys / Getty Images At the time of her free skate performance, American Emily Hughes had the highest score in the segment.

No country has had three different skaters win gold in three straight Olympics. Norway won golds in 1928, 1932 and 1936, but all by Sonja Henie; two of East Germany’s three golds in 1980, 1984 and 1988 were by Katarina Witt.

“No, I didn’t cry,” Cohen said. “I don’t usually cry unless I’m angry. I’m not really angry, more of a letdown. Ultimately, it’s four minutes of one day in my life.”

Cohen brushed off questions of an injury, saying the nagging aches and pains had nothing to do with her disappointing performance. Looking nervous when she took the ice, she gave away her claim to gold in the first minute.

She went down heavily on a triple lutz that ruined a planned three-jump combination, then put two hands on the ice on a triple flip. Her interpretation of “Romeo and Juliet” was so strong, though, it made up for her technical errors.

When she came off the ice, she told coach John Nicks she didn’t think she was going to get a medal.

“Wait and see how everyone skates,” Nicks responded.

Cohen went backstage and took off her dress and skates, sure she wouldn’t be needing them again this night. But Fumie Suguri was unimpressive, and Slutskaya was underwhelming. The two-time world champion fell on a triple loop, her spirals weren’t even in the same arena as Arakawa’s, and Slutskaya looked spent with a minute still to go in the program.

Slide show   Short and sweet U.S. figure skaters Sasha Cohen, Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes skate in Tuesday's short program.

When Slutskaya’s marks came up, showing Cohen as the silver medalist, the American had to go and fetch her dress and skates.

Her silver was the eighth ever by an American woman and the second for the United States in the games; ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won the other. Those were the only U.S. figure skating medals in Turin.

Teenagers Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, who replaced Kwan when she withdrew with a groin injury, finished sixth and seventh.

“Of course I was disappointed and in shock. But you’ve got to take what life gives you,” Cohen said. “I definitely didn’t think I was going to get any medal when I finished. So it was a nice surprise.”

For Arakawa and her country, too.