I attended Skate America that year, and as I recall, she TRIED to land the quadruple salchow in competition, but did not.
As far as "not having time to train", I find that hard to swallow. Competitive skaters train hour after hour nearly every day of the week. When you travel to your competition site, there is always an opportunity to practice, especially when you are at the elite level. When Sasha was here in 2001 for Skate America, she was featured in our local newspaper practicing at several ice rinks in town.