Sarah Hughes | Golden Skate

Sarah Hughes

princess9

On the Ice
Joined
May 1, 2010
I noticed photos of her on Icenetwork from Harvard's Evening of Champions. She is very thin again. Is Sarah skating a lot again? What is she doing since her graduation?
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
If you're interested in keeping up with her, perhaps you should grab a Twitter account (if you don't have one already) and follow her on there. She's on there and she is active:

www.twitter.com/SarahHughesNY

She'll occasionally post pictures of various events in her life. Definitely recommended for any Sarah fan out there

ETA: To get to the question asked, it's actually not quite clear but it seems from her tweets she is just enjoying life for the time being. I heard she was interested in law school though.
 
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princess9

On the Ice
Joined
May 1, 2010
Thanks R.D. I'm just not of the twitter generation, tho. I'm wondering how she got so skinny unless she is skating a lot.

Question: What would Sarah's score have looked like under COP? (oly gold skates). It was the most technically demanding ladies Oly skate up to that point. Is it still? Can you or some COP whiz break down that skate into COP points and compare to Yuna Kim?
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Thanks R.D. I'm just not of the twitter generation, tho. I'm wondering how she got so skinny unless she is skating a lot.

Question: What would Sarah's score have looked like under COP? (oly gold skates). It was the most technically demanding ladies Oly skate up to that point. Is it still? Can you or some COP whiz break down that skate into COP points and compare to Yuna Kim?

I'm no COP expert, but I've seen tons of people on this board say that Sarah would have got many UR calls at the Olympics, and might have not won the gold medal under COP.
 

MKFSfan

Medalist
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
It's so hard to compare a 6.0 program to COP programs, but I do think Sarah had some good aspects of her skating that would've helped her under COP. She included a COE spin. Her spirals and FW were pretty good. And she had lots of transitions in her programs. BUT she would've gotten hammered on her jumps. I think her salchow and axle are her most likely jumps to not be picked apart, probably also the toe, but the flip, (f)lutz and loop ending combos were iffy on URs.

I do think, programs as they were, Sarah would've been so far out of 1st after the SP, her 4th was a big gift under either system.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
If Sarah had skated in Vancouver and was treated as leniently as the other Ladies were I think she would have been in the running.
I forget her SP and am only referring to her LP.

I believe Sarah would have been given the benefit of the doubt on several of her jumps in Vancouver - just as Yuna, Mao, Mirai and Joannie were.

NBC replayed Yuna's opening 3x3 and Scott mumbled - very close - and it was on both jumps. Mao suddenly had fully rotated 3A's in Vancouver and Joannie stepped out of a couple of jumps that were treated lightly by the tech panel.

Who is to say how Sarah would have been judged? But we just can't forget she was skating under a different system and had the hardest program by FAR. Irina did not attempt a 3x3 let alone two of them and was a little sloppy herself on much easier jumps.
 

princess9

On the Ice
Joined
May 1, 2010
It seems to me that Sarah (and Tara) had the sheer drive to try to be the best and do as much as they could tecnically. I think they both would flourish under any system. I still feel disappointed that we did not see them mature and compete hard for a few more years. We will never know, I guess.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Here is what an Olympic champion looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pun-ZjqUOLA

One of the greatest Olympic free skates ever and under the pressure of home ice.
She blew Michelle and Irina out of the building with this performance.

As to 2010 - let's face it - Yuna, Mao and Joannie can't do the two 3x3's Sarah showed us. Was one short - don't kid yourselves fans - the Ladies were a bit short in Vancouver too.

Olympic ice is not about geeks with microscopes taking apart a performance. It is about skating in the moment.

I find all the criticism about Sarah laughable. She won and she won with great style, grace and guts.
 
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wonbinfan86

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 9, 2007
Here is what an Olympic champion looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pun-ZjqUOLA

One of the greatest Olympic free skates ever and under the pressure of home ice.
She blew Michelle and Irina out of the building with this performance.

As to 2010 - let's face it - Yuna, Mao and Joannie can't do the two 3x3's Sarah showed us. Was one short - don't kid yourselves fans - the Ladies were a bit short in Vancouver too.

Olympic ice is not about geeks with microscopes taking apart a performance. It is about skating in the moment.

I find all the criticism about Sarah laughable. She won and she won with great style, grace and guts.

Have you seen the slow motion tape of her "3-3"s? Her triple loops were at least 3/4 underrotated
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Have you seen the slow motion tape of her "3-3"s? Her triple loops were at least 3/4 underrotated

Well if that was true then it would make them pretty much the same as some of the jumps I saw in Vancouver. Or did you actually think all of the jumps in Vancouver were fully rotated. :think:
 

princess9

On the Ice
Joined
May 1, 2010
Very exaggerated criticism. Tara had to be second in terms of difficulty. I loved both skaters. It seemed like destiny for both. What warriors! Well, I wish Hughes would try a comeback! People are so obsessed with these judges and their slo mo UR calls. Well, I guess no one can say she's been outskated yet in an Olympics.
 

MKFSfan

Medalist
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Yu-Na's 3lz/3t and 2a/3t blows any combo done by Sarah and Tara out of the water. Not to mention Yu-Na's difficult entrances into her jumps and superior spins and connecting moves. Sarah may have landed two 3/3s and Tara a 3/3 and a sequence, but I believe Yu-Na's SP and LP had more content and technically more difficult overall, so she should go down as the technically greatest Women OGM. I wish Yu-Na had done a 3loop then no one would question her greatness. But even without it, I still think the quality of her HUGE jumps with great height and distance makes up for lack of a 3 loop. All 3 were/are elite skaters with competitive drive, no question about it. However, with the adjustments made in regards to URs, both may have benefited more in the upcoming season than they would've beforehand.

Tara has pretty much said it is hard to defend your title. Sarah clearly lost motivation and the following season after OGM was quite underwhelming. Tara left the scene. I hope Yu-Na does keep on competing and up to her standards. That would be a true test of a Champion. But if she does leave, well, it's been quite an experience!
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Tara has pretty much said it is hard to defend your title. Sarah clearly lost motivation and the following season after OGM was quite underwhelming. Tara left the scene. I hope Yu-Na does keep on competing and up to her standards. That would be a true test of a Champion. But if she does leave, well, it's been quite an experience!

I agree especially with your last point, MKFSfan. Whatever YuNa does or doesn't do in the future--even if she continues to skate and becomes "underwhelming," what she's done in the last two years or so has made her one for the ages. I don't know how one can quantify skating enough to compare her Olympics with that of Tara or Sarah. But the size of YuNa's jumps, and especially the size of the second jumps in her combinations--that's beyond compare, at least for now. All of the ladies you mentioned, along with Michelle, Mao, and of course Shizuka, are spectacular and memorable skaters. I guess they could all be ordered into some sort of ranking, but I certainly wouldn't want to do it. I'm just happy we have them all at their best.
 

shine

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Cheated jumps aside, Sarah had many great qualities as a skater. I often felt the harsh criticism that her skating faced was way exaggerated. She had interesting programs, good in-betweens (more so than Kwan and Cohen I'd say at the time), great spins, solid basics and a good sense of musicality, even if she was a little less polished than some of the other top skaters.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Cheated jumps aside, Sarah had many great qualities as a skater. I often felt the harsh criticism that her skating faced was way exaggerated. She had interesting programs, good in-betweens (more so than Kwan and Cohen I'd say at the time), great spins, solid basics and a good sense of musicality, even if she was a little less polished than some of the other top skaters.

I agree with you. Comparing Yuna in 2010 to Sara in 2002 feels just as strange as comparing Michelle in '98 to Kati in '88. Skating moves forward, eras and RULES change, and skaters continue to improve.
To overlook this seems to show any lack of historical perspective and even elementary understanding of sports in general and skating in particular..

What next - that Carol Heiss was better than Sonja?

It is interesting that there is a thread going on now about the difficulty of putting a 3Loop as the second jump of a combination. A few said it seems almost impossible to get the rotations ratified under the IJS.

Hello - Sarah was not skating under the IJS. I happen to love Michelle and Sasha and in retrospect Irina as well. Three terrific skaters which only makes Sarah's accomplishment in 2002 more noteworthy.

As to '06 or 2010 - or just go ahead and pick almost any Olympics and few have ever skated with the freedom we saw from Sarah in SLC. Ironic that possibly Tara comes to mind :)

I am not writing to compare 16 year old Sarah's performance to Yuna or any other Olympic champion. I am saying that in 2002 she performed exceptionally well, beat two great skaters who perhaps did not handle the pressure as well and it is silly to bring up loops - when Sarah did them in difficult combinations we rarely see today.

Yuna was the best in 2010 and a wonderful Olympic champion. I would feel horrible and might not follow skating as much if our 2010 champion was not better than our 2002 champion. Not to recognize that skating moves forward feels terribly shortsighted to me and is a point that should not need to be debated.
 
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lavender

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I wonder if she's skating also just because that's what she use to do but I don't hear much about her but the occassional mention of ceremonies she may attend....oh and twitter.
 

jenaj

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Country
United-States
Yu-Na's 3lz/3t and 2a/3t blows any combo done by Sarah and Tara out of the water.

Certainly true with Sarah. Probably true with Tara, whose jumps were tiny. But Tara did do a difficult 3-Loop/3-Loop, which no one before or since to my recollection has done. And I say this as someone who is definitely not a Tara fan! I do think that Yu Na's 3-3's are the biggest, most powerful and prettiest of any lady skater.
 

MKFSfan

Medalist
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Actually, Sarah had done 3lp/3lp in competition. There have been others, but Sarah comes to mind.

Regardless, the question that sparked this debate was how Sarah would fare under COP, not who had more spark, etc. I agree you can't compare 6.0 programs to COP programs, but I also think if Yu-Na skated a watered down version of what she did, with the same jumps, or even the way she skated at Worlds 2010, she would have won easily in 1998 and 2002. Tara and Sarah most certainly would've/could've upped their technical difficulty to contend under COP, just not sure their jump arsenal would beat Yu-Na's or that their loop combos would've been ratified.
 
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