Sarah Hughes

RIskatingfan · Feb 5, 2005

hockeyfan228 said:
If Sarah Hughes didn't have an Olympic gold medal and wasn't a box office draw, IMO her younger sister would have had a better chance to be cast in SOI.

That's the reason Hughes is with SOI? Of course it is, that's the reason why ALL skaters get invited to SOI: medals, being box office draws or both. Hughes is not an exception, quite the contrary.

It's one thing to criticize the skater because of her skills and another one to criticize the weight (and do you really know how much she weights?). I think ticket buyers have the right to criticize her skating if she doesn't stand up to the expectations. But by focusing on the skater's weight? Is that the real source of people's disapointment? If so, that's a little sad.

76olympics · Feb 5, 2005

I would really LOVE to look like Katia G or Yelena B----but I probably look more like Sarah (except much older, much darker, more ethnic! You get the picture!). I think most women in the Western world feel outside the magic circle on this one.

I guess if the weight affects her competitive edge (triple jumps etc)--this would be a factor if she re-enters eligible events. But-like some have said-this is show skating. I don't think Sarah's lack of difficulty would bother me anymore than Roz or the other double jumpers--I would just love the chance to see SOI! It never comes to my rather small town.

I just hate to think that this would bother her in any major way. If she decides to train for Torino-doubtless that level of activity will take care of any extra weight in any case. I remember Elizabeth Manley's autobios were just haunted by this concern over weight-particuarly the second one. And-I always thought she looked mega-cute!

dlkksk8fan · Feb 5, 2005

I think it isn't so much Sarah's weight, but the fact that she is much bigger than the other ladies in the cast AND can't skate as well as they do.

This is totally true. She is the current olympic gold medalist and should be skating at a certain level in my opinion if she is going to be a featured performer. I was there, I saw her skate and (IMO) her skating tecnique was WAY below everyone elses.

Grgranny · Feb 5, 2005

Actually, her weight wouldn't be of much concern except it is really going to make a difference on her performances when she does get back into competing.
It only stands to reason that you just can't compete well with even the smallest weight gain. Look at all the ways it affected Nancy Kerrigan. I have noticed that when watching them on tv, their legs always look much larger on tv than in person.

chuckm · Feb 5, 2005

Sarah was in training for SOI since the end of June 2004. She's been training or performing now for 7 months and hasn't made much headway with either her jumps or her weight, yet she is talking about going into "real" training after the SOI tour ends and possibly returning to eligible skating. I think it's just a little unrealistic to believe that she can accomplish in 6 months of "real" training what she couldn't get done in a year.

I will believe it when I see it.

ChiSk8Fan · Feb 5, 2005

thisthingcalledlove said:
As long as Sarah doesn't look like this...

*shakes head*

Then she's fine...perfectly fine. (And if they say the camera adds 10 lbs to the picture...I wonder where that woman in the picture is hiding the 10 lbs...the microphone?)

Whitney Houston has a well known, publicized battle with Crack Cocaine addiction. Of course she is bone thin, she never eats when on crack.

Sarah Hughes is a lovely young woman, with a real figure many athletic women wish they had once their competition days are over, instead of being sticks with no hips, no buttocks and no cleavage.

Sarah is fine, all detractors and dishers are just being disagreeable.

mzheng · Feb 6, 2005

ChiSk8Fan said:
Sarah Hughes is a lovely young woman, with a real figure many athletic women wish they had once their competition days are over, instead of being sticks with no hips, no buttocks and no cleavage.

Sarah is fine, all detractors and dishers are just being disagreeable.

Sure she is fine. But this is a skating board, any thing related to the figure skating is disscussed. And the weight control has been known to be one aspect in figure skating trainning. So it is disscused. Nothing wrong either.

And do you honestly think that ppl buy SOI ticket just to see an 'lovely young woman, with a real figure'?

RealtorGal · Feb 6, 2005

dlkksk8fan said:
This is totally true. She is the current olympic gold medalist and should be skating at a certain level in my opinion if she is going to be a featured performer. I was there, I saw her skate and (IMO) her skating tecnique was WAY below everyone elses.

Exactly! She didn't have to be rail thin like the others--that was not the issue for me--but I did expect her to be at least close to the level of the other performers, and she wasn't--not even when she wasn't jumping.

show 42 · Feb 6, 2005

I would love to see Sarah skate in SOI....(if they ever come back to Fresno). I think one can see visually, however, what others are talking about when they say Sarah is not in the same shape as she was at the Olympics. There is definitely a difference between then and now. If you had never seen Sarah's performance, either live or televised during the Olympics, and the first time you saw her was at an SOI performance, you might think her size and weight were just fine for her body type........

I never called Michelle fat, but I did see a difference between Michelle of last year during Nationals and this year........her face seemed fuller, not fat. I think I mentioned that she wasn't in her "fighting weight" shape yet. Perhaps neither is Sarah........42

Joesitz (RIP) · Feb 6, 2005

Keep you eye on Emilie. She's got everything Sarah needed even in competitions.

Joe

hockeyfan228 · Feb 7, 2005

RIskatingfan said:
That's the reason Hughes is with SOI? Of course it is, that's the reason why ALL skaters get invited to SOI: medals, being box office draws or both. Hughes is not an exception, quite the contrary.

It's one thing to criticize the skater because of her skills and another one to criticize the weight (and do you really know how much she weights?). I think ticket buyers have the right to criticize her skating if she doesn't stand up to the expectations. But by focusing on the skater's weight? Is that the real source of people's disapointment? If so, that's a little sad.

I'm not sure if Stephen Cousins won any medals as a pro, but apart from the British Championships, he didn't win any medals that I know of -- at least not in major competitions -- as an eligible skater. Ina/Zimmerman won US titles, but only a single bronze medal at their last World Championships. Yuka Sato had a formidable career as a pro skater before she was selected for SOI, despite a World Championship. Todd Eldredge never won an Olympic medal of any color.

It's not just Olympic Gold Medallists who are invited to SOI, and every other Olympic Gold Medallist came to SOI in good enough shape to offer a good performance. Lipinski may have had to curtail jumps because of her hips, but she still had skating skills and could spin. Hughes now has a layback, but has lost most of the qualities that made her an Olympic Gold Medallist.

The issues of Hughes skating now are not just being out of shape or practice, or needing to regain timing, or lacking stamina. Her weight, and the shift of weight from being post-pubescent, is preventing her from doing most of her jumps, and from doing the ones she does well. If she were a civilian, her weight would not be an issue.

chuckm · Feb 7, 2005

Exactly. Sarah's weight is an issue because it seems to be the factor that prevents her from being the skater she was when she won her OGM. She can't even do the jumps, spins and spirals she did when finishing 6th at Worlds 2003.

All of the other skaters in SOI, men and women alike, easily outperform Sarah, who is supposed to be the show headliner. That can't be what the ticketholders were expecting when they bought their tickets.

RIskatingfan · Feb 7, 2005

hockeyfan228 said:
I'm not sure if Stephen Cousins won any medals as a pro, but apart from the British Championships, he didn't win any medals that I know of -- at least not in major competitions -- as an eligible skater. Ina/Zimmerman won US titles, but only a single bronze medal at their last World Championships. Yuka Sato had a formidable career as a pro skater before she was selected for SOI, despite a World Championship. Todd Eldredge never won an Olympic medal of any color.

Maybe I didn't explain well what I meant. To be with SOI, a skater either has an impressive resume that probably includes an Olympic title, is a box office draw OR both.

Steven Cousins doesn't have any relevant titles but he has many fans (and is apparently a good friend of Scott Hamilton). He returned this year to the tour because his fans did a huge campaign and begged for his return. Todd Eldredge is a World Champion but more important, multiple time US champion and so are I&Z. National champions are always big draws wherever you go. Yuka Sato has experience, is well known among American audiences and they lacked ladies skaters.

Nobody is questioning the skaters' skills, they're obviously great skaters and the cast this year is stellar. But the titles are major and so is the the popularity among the audiences. If skills was the only thing that mattered you'd certainly be seeing other skaters in the tour as well.

Sarah's weight is an issue because it seems to be the factor that prevents her from being the skater she was when she won her OGM.

The question is, you don't know if that is the reason, do you?

lavender · Feb 7, 2005

I don't know but I think people purchased tickets to see the other skaters for the most part. There are regulars that go every year regardless. I'm sitting at work next to one that goes every year and her main reason to go isn't Sarah. I guess I just don't see her as 'THE' headliner. I see her as a co-headliner with all of the skaters.

Grgranny · Feb 7, 2005

I know that I didn't purchase tickets to see her. She's ok but it's the other skaters I was interested in. I don't dislike her at all. And she still has that beautiful layback. Actually, I like them all but let's face it, a little overweight just isn't as attractive. If she didn't have that gold medal, they probably wouldn't have hired her. She didn't do much in the way of jumps. I remember Nancy Kerrigans coaches saying many times if she gains a few pounds she couldn't do her jumps.

hockeyfan228 · Feb 7, 2005

RIskatingfan said:
The question is, you don't know if that is the reason, do you?

Frank Carroll said that when he'd show up to a competition with Michelle Kwan early in her career, he'd look at Tonya Harding's thighs, and know whether the formidable jumper had shown up, or an "overweight" skater whose best jumps had stayed home. He was talking about maybe 10 lbs. making the difference. I think he could be considered an expert on the subject.

Or looking at it from another angle, physics.

RIskatingfan · Feb 7, 2005

hockeyfan228 said:
Frank Carroll said that when he'd show up to a competition with Michelle Kwan early in her career, he'd look at Tonya Harding's thighs, and know whether the formidable jumper had shown up, or an "overweight" skater whose best jumps had stayed home. He was talking about maybe 10 lbs. making the difference. I think he could be considered an expert on the subject.

I agree he'd probably know better. Personally, though, I haven't read any comment from Frank Carroll on Hughes and what he thinks about her shape.

chuckm · Feb 7, 2005

Of course, Tonya Harding is only 5' tall, and 10 lbs on her frame would make a big difference. And Frank Carroll was right--Tonya was successful when she trained hard, and the hard training kept the weight off. When she slacked off, her weight would go up and she wasn't able to land that 3A. In 1994, Tonya was not in good competition shape. Absent the 3A, her 8th place at the Olympics was about the best that could be expected.

At Worlds 2003, Hughes had grown 1.5 inches and gained about 15-20 lbs since SLC, and she wasn't able to finish any higher than 6th. Elena Sokolova was slim and trim when she won World silver in 2003, but after having surgery and gaining weight, Elena barely made the top 10 in 2004.

Every skater has an optimum weight at which he/she performs best. It's pretty obvious that Sarah Hughes is not at her optimum weight.

2ndmark · Feb 9, 2005

Any sensible person who has seen the current edition of SOI realizes that any talk of Sarah returning to competition for the 2006 Olympics, is preposterous. I do not presume to know what is on her mind or in her plans but if her recent performance in Dallas is any indication, any thoughts in this direction are distinctly unwise. She is seriously out of shape. You can draw your own conclusion as to whether that statement implys a reference to her weight. But a reigning Olympic champion who can only manage a single axel and falls on doubles is out of shape. I absolutely support her right to make a living and if she wants to skate and SOI wants to hire her, lovely. It is merely a fact that her appearance and performance suffer egregiously in comparison to her fellow castmates.

lavender · Feb 9, 2005

But a reigning Olympic champion who can only manage a single axel and falls on doubles is out of shape

Sarah fell on a double jump recently?

Sarah Hughes

RIskatingfan

76olympics

dlkksk8fan

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl

chuckm

ChiSk8Fan

mzheng

RealtorGal

show 42

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Joesitz (RIP)

hockeyfan228

chuckm

RIskatingfan

lavender

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl

hockeyfan228

RIskatingfan

chuckm

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