The Associated Press
Sarah Hughes of the U.S. skates during her gold-medal performance Thursday night.

The Associated Press
Michelle Kwan stumbles during her long program on Thursday night.

Hughes pulls golden upset

Leaders' stumbles help teen claim figure skating's top prize

HELENE ELLIOTT, LOS ANGELES TIMES

Originally published Friday, February 22, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY -- She floated over the ice, as delicate as the flutes that played her music but as assertive and strong as any champion has ever been.

Sarah Hughes faced daunting odds Thursday night and overcame them with uncanny poise and polish, staging one of the greatest upsets in the annals of Olympic figure skating.

With a softly flowing lavender dress and steely resolve, the giggly 16-year-old from Great Neck, N.Y., performed a technically demanding but artistically appealing routine Thursday to vault from fourth place to the gold medal, a leap of faith few but she believed she could carry off.

While favorites Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya toiled on the ice -- Kwan two-footed a triple toe loop and fell on a triple flip, drawing a collective gasp from the crowd packed into the Salt Lake Ice Center-Hughes soared to "Daphnis et Chloe" by Ravel. She edged Slutskaya by a 5-4 margin on the judges' scorecards, leaving Slutskaya with silver and Kwan with bronze. Seventeen-year-old Sasha Cohen of Laguna Niguel, who fell on her combination jump, dropped from third after the short program to fourth overall because the long program is weighted to count for two-thirds of the final score.

Hughes' rally is unprecedented in the 11 world championships and four Olympics that have been contested since the compulsory figures were eliminated from figure skating competitions and the current format of short program-long program was adopted.

It also marked the fourth time the United States has placed two women on the Olympic medal stand: In 1956 Tenley Albright won gold and Carol Heiss won silver; in 1960 Heiss won gold and Barbara Ann Roles won bronze. In 1992 Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan won gold and bronze, respectively, and in 1998, Tara Lipinski and Kwan won gold and silver.

"I skated for pure enjoyment," said Hughes, who learned to skate as a toddler on the family's backyard rink so she could keep up with her hockey-playing older brothers.

"That's how I wanted my Olympic moment to be."

Kwan and Sasha Cohen surely didn't envision their Olympic moments playing out as they did.

Kwan was the favorite here, as she had been at Nagano and was the leader after the short program, as she was in Japan. The six-time U.S. champion and four-time world champion had endured a rocky season that included splitting with choreographer Lori Nichol and longtime coach Frank Carroll.

But as at Nagano four years ago, Kwan's Olympic long program performance ended with tears of despair instead of triumph. She was again surpassed by an eager teenager who outjumped her and found a way, for at least four magical minutes, to match the artistry that supposedly was Kwan's hole card.

"I've had great practices, and I think this was my worst skate for a while," Kwan said, her face scrubbed clean of makeup and her eyes bearing traces of tears. "It's a bummer."

For Hughes, it was a dream come true.

"I didn't really go out and skate for a gold medal. I went out to have a great time," said Hughes, the fourth of six kids of John Hughes, a former college hockey player turned attorney, and Amy Hughes, a cancer survivor.

"I said, 'This is the Olympics. I want to be the best.'

"And it's amazing, really, truly amazing."

On the Web:

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to Salt Lake 2002 index