Figure skater Alexandra “Sasha” Cohen won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics and popularized the difficult I-spin, which many now call the “Sasha spin” in her honor. Cohen began doing gymnastics as a child and switched to skating at age seven. She began skating competitively at age eleven, but her first major success came with the 2000 US Championships, where she placed first in the short skate and second overall in the free skate. She won silver medals at the 2004 and 2005 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships, continuing on to the Olympics despite back and hip injuries. She is known for her mastery of the I-spin, where a skater lifts the blade of one skate over their head so their entire body forms a straight line. After the 2006 Olympics she skated in exhibitions and in movies and television, playing roles in CSI: New York, Blades of Glory, and the Weather Channel’s Tornado Week, where she demonstrated a tornado’s power with her own tight spins.