The Associated Press
Sarah Hughes of the U.S. shows off her gold medal at a press conference on Friday.

Hughes still shocked by figure skating gold

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Saturday, February 23, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY -- Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes has some advice for anyone trying to handicap figure skating: Ice is slippery and anything can happen. It did Thursday night.

And no one was more stunned than Hughes, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history by leaping from fourth place to the top of the world.

"It shows don't make predictions in skating, because who knows?" the 16-year-old New Yorker said Friday after a whirlwind night that netted two hours of sleep. "I thought there was no way in the world I could win. Realistically, there was this little, little window of opportunity, hardly anything. So I just went out and just let it go."

She did so with flair, technical proficiency and the kind of overall brilliance that sometimes not even the athlete can explain.

And it was a shocker.

There have been other surprise champions at the Olympics, particularly Alexei Urmanov in the 1994 games. But he won the short program at Lillehammer.

Hughes had to leap past the likes of Michelle Kwan and Russia's Irina Slutskaya, the favorites, plus 17-year-old Sasha Cohen, who finished ahead of Hughes at the U.S. nationals.

Leap she did, nailing seven triple jumps, five in combination. Her triple-triples were so well executed that Hughes shrieked in delight when she completed the last of two such jumps.

By the time she was finished, the Salt Lake Ice Center was rocking. Dozens of wrapped flowers flew onto the ice as Hughes glowed, though she was nearly doubled over in exhaustion.

"I always go out and I'm so worried about whether I'm going to do this jump or that," she said. "Or whether I'm going to skate fast or spin well. Last night, I went out and I just skated. That was the most important thing. I didn't realize until I finished that that was just the greatest feeling ever."

When Hughes came off the ice, coach Robin Wagner turned her around to face the arena, held her by the shoulders and had her savor the moment and the scene.

"I felt like she needed that moment to really take it in, to see the crowd, the flowers and all the flags waving," Wagner said.

Not that she and Wagner had any idea how really special the night would become. As they sat in the dressing room, both were expecting a bronze medal -- at best -- before her surprise gold.

Hughes doesn't have an agent, and until she won Thursday, she hadn't made a big impact on the international skating scene despite a bronze medal at last year's world championships.

But everything has changed now. The gold medal should be worth from $3 million to $5 million in endorsements, commercials and appearances for Hughes.

"She's obviously a millionaire now a couple times over," said Kip Koslow, vice president of Steiner Sports Marketing. "She will get a lot of offers from a lot of companies."

Hardly what Hughes was thinking of on the day after her momentous night. She said she plans to keep skating, beginning with next month's world championships in Nagano.

And she has one other immediate objective.

"My next goal," the high school junior said, "is to get in the high 1500s on my SATs."

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