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| Birth Name(s) : Sarah Hughes |
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Full Sarah Hughes Biography
Sarah Elizabeth Hughes (born May 2, 1985 in Great Neck, New York) is an American figure skater and the 2002 Olympic gold medalist.
Hughes is the fourth of six children; her father is a Canadian of Irish descent and her mother, Amy Pasternack, is a Jewish American. Her younger sister, Emily Hughes, was the women's 2006 bronze medalist in the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships and placed seventh at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
Hughes's mother Amy is a breast cancer survivor, and Hughes has become a breast cancer advocate by doing a commercial for General Electric promoting breast cancer awareness and research. Hughes stated: “I always said that if I can get one person to get a mammogram, I've accomplished something."
Her father, John Hughes, was captain of the NCAA champion 1969-70 Cornell University ice hockey team, which is the only NCAA hockey team to finish unbeaten at 29-0-0.
Hughes began skating at the age of three under the direction of Patti Johnson who coached her until Junior Worlds. She showed promise when she won the 1998 U.S. Junior Championships, then placed second at the 1999 World Junior Championships. Dubbed a "baby ballerina" along with Naomi Nari Nam and Sasha Cohen, Hughes placed fourth in her debut at the senior level at the 1999 U.S. championships. One year later at Nationals, she won the bronze medal behind Michelle Kwan and Cohen. Because she medaled at the Junior World Championships one year prior, Hughes was "grandfathered" into the senior World Championships, where she placed fifth. In 2001 she took bronze at the Grand Prix Final and the World Championships.
The week before the opening of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Hughes appeared on the cover of Time magazine, even though she was considered only the third-best American skater, behind Kwan and Cohen, the top two finishers at the 2002 U.S. National Championships.
During the event, Hughes was in fourth going into the long program, and few people predicted she would win. But she landed seven triple jumps, including two triple-triple combinations, and narrowly won the event, edging out Russia's Irina Slutskaya in a tie-breaker after Michelle Kwan faltered and fell to third place.
After her Olympic win, Hughes was honored with a parade in her hometown of Great Neck. Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke at the event and declared it Sarah Hughes Day.
Hughes did not compete at the 2002 World Figure Skating Championships. While she finished 2nd at the 2003 U.S. Championships, she faltered at the World Championships one month later and finished in 6th place.
In 2002, she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the U.S. After the 2003 World Figure Skating Championships, in which she finished 6th, Hughes left competitive skating to attend Yale University. She took the 2004-2005 year off from college to skate professionally with the Smuckers Stars on Ice tour company. |
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