Mike Celizic

TURIN, Italy - Don’t say you expected gold after what’s happened to Team USA during these Olympics, and don’t say silver isn’t a worthy prize for Sasha Cohen, not after the way she picked herself off the ice and brought her long program home.

Go ahead and say Sasha always falls, because, in fact, she does. In Salt Lake City, she also fell — all the way out of the medals. This time around, she landed a two-cheek butt-plant on her first triple and a four-point landing on her second.

But it’s what you do after you fall that counts. And what Cohen did was finish her program with a technical and artistic brilliance that saved her silver.

“I was very disappointed with my skate,” Cohen said. “I definitely gave 100 percent in my effort, I gave it my all. So I have no regrets with that. But it just wasn’t my night.”

She also called her medal a “gift,” which it wasn’t. For it to have qualified for that label, someone else would have had to have been clearly better than she, and no one was.

In Salt Lake City, when she fell, others — notably gold medalist Sarah Hughes — took advantage. In Turin, only gold medalist Shizuka Arakawa – the first Japanese woman ever to win the event — skated her best.

Arakawa flawless
But Arakawa, who was just seven tenths of a point behind Cohen at the beginning of Thursday’s free program, was all but flawless, and even if Cohen had held it all together, Arakawa may still have won. So give Arakawa credit for winning her medal, and give Cohen credit for not losing hers.

Slide show   Free wheelin' See images from the ladies' free skate in which tumbles were plentiful.

It’s rare that anyone is perfect in the final event of the women’s competition. The skater who is usually wins. Arakawa was that skater.

It’s possible that Cohen was skating injured, as well. She skipped a practice session Wednesday, and during the morning warm-up for Thursday’s competition, her left thigh appeared to be wrapped underneath her tights. She didn’t use injury as a crutch, but athletes don’t normally wrap body parts that aren’t injured.

WINTER OLYMPICS More on women's figure skating Despite falls, Cohen wins silver medal Cohen says silver medal 'painful,' eyes '10 Celizic: Cohen picks herself up, wins silver Opinion: Cohen just missed gold — twice Vote: Did she skate hurt? | Deserve silver? Slutskaya falls short | Russian sweep derailed Arakawa finally perfect | Japan improving Vote: Who will win skating gold in 2010? Final overall standings |   Photos: Free fallin' More on Cohen | Test your skating IQ MORE ON FIGURE SKATING

Some had said that the United States had a shot at two medals, which was true, but it was always an extremely long shot. Kimmie Meissner, just 16 years old and in her first Olympics, started fifth and finished sixth after a clean free skate. Emily Hughes, who won a spot after Michelle Kwan pulled out, fell once but put up a personal-best score that kept her in seventh place.

Chance for 2010
Hughes, the sister of 2002 gold medalist Sarah Hughes, is 17 and also in her first Olympics. Both she and Meissner give the United States a big leg up on the 2010 games, when both will be seasoned and mature.

Slide show   Pictures of the Day Check out Sunday's best Olympic images.

To have seriously expected either Hughes or Meissner to medal would be to have expected a miracle. They skated extremely well, and at their age and with their lack of experience, that’s all that anyone could have asked. Neither acted disappointed, nor did they have any reason to.

The important thing for the United States Olympic Team is first that Cohen got a medal. It kept alive a streak of medalists in women’s figure skating that goes back to Peggy Fleming in 1968, and that was the team’s first order of business, to maintain the program’s legacy and give it momentum for the future.