"I feel like Sarah Hughes," says Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer

[KwanIsALegend]

I hope Sarah is loyally sending Irina her monthly roses.

 

[Eddie Lee]

All things being said, Sarah's achievement at 2002 Olympics was monumental. Going out early in the last group, skating lights out--with the tradition of "judges saving points for 'the big guns' that were to follow"--was a historical achievement. Wasn't she only 16 at the time? And consider that it was Sarah's skate that had all the 'big guns' tight and edgy when their skate turn came 'round. Not one of them came close! It was an epic victory for Sarah!

 

[ice coverage]

According to this biography, Ms. Mayers dabbled in figure skating as a child, but ballet was her big love. She danced all through high school and college.

MM, thank you for reading my mind and researching Mayer's bkgd. Based on her reference to Hughes, I had started wondering whether Mayer had any skating experience in her youth.
Sounds as if not as much as Condi Rice or Vera Wang, for example, but no matter. Having Mayer as a friend of the sport can only be good for skating.

 

[gmyers]

I wasn't trying to say that slutskaya deserved to win 100% just that she would have been a fine winner. That she did a lot of hard jumps and didn't fall apart like cohen and kwan. But if people think she didn't even deserve to medal or defending slutskaya's silver or saying she would have been a fine winner means you think she was robbed than I am not getting into this further! She would have been a fine winner and skated really well and deserved silver and maybe Gold but she was not robbed of gold that Hughes was very deserving of the gold she won.

 

[Macassar88]

If Mayer's thought process is underdone as Sarah's "triples," Yahoo is screwed

 

[Layfan]

Maybe not, but she's a good role model for performing great when it counts most, conquering the world, then moving on to something else.

Plus, as has been noted many times in this site, Sarah's victory didn't come completely out of nowhere. She had already accumulated her share of great performances and medals so you could say that her Olympic gold was the climax of a stellar career. And nothing wrong with moving on from figure skating!

 

[chuckm]

Sarah won exactly 4 gold medals during her entire career, from 1997 to 2003:
1998 US Junior Championship
1999 Vienna Cup
2001 Skate Canada
2002 Olympics

In the JGP, Sarah won two silver event medals and a silver JGPF medal
At the US Senior Championships:
4th 1999
3rd 2000
2nd 2001
3rd 2002
2nd 2003

In the GP:
1999-2000: 3rd, 4th
2000-2001: 3rd, 2nd, 2nd; 3rd GPF
2001-2002: 1st, 2nd, 2nd; 3rd GPF

Worlds:
1999: 7th
2000: 5th
2001: 3rd
2003: 6th

Sarah was consistently good, but not great, in her skating career leading up to the 2002 Olympics. That was what made her Olympic performance and win so shocking. Unfortunately, Sarah could not duplicate her Olympic effort ever again. Her performances in the 2002-2003 season were underwhelming, and her turn in 2005 SOI was embarrassing.

 

[Moment]

If Mayer's thought process is underdone as Sarah's "triples," Yahoo is screwed

 

[sky_fly20]

If Mayer's thought process is underdone as Sarah's "triples," Yahoo is screwed

best comment ever

 

[KwanIsALegend]

All things being said, Sarah's achievement at 2002 Olympics was monumental. Going out early in the last group, skating lights out--with the tradition of "judges saving points for 'the big guns' that were to follow"--was a historical achievement. Wasn't she only 16 at the time? And consider that it was Sarah's skate that had all the 'big guns' tight and edgy when their skate turn came 'round. Not one of them came close! It was an epic victory for Sarah!

I don't think Sarah's Oly gold was so monumental. She won because the other top skaters faltered and she skated clean AND the way in which the scoring played out put Sarah on top. As Scott said, she will be sending Irina flowers for the rest of her life.
She wasn't a bad skater, but she wasn't great either. She had her moments but still never managed a national title or a worlds. Her return to skating the following season after her Olympic win was not a good one.

 

[gmyers]

Sending irina flowers is so nasty! I mean it really is a joke I guess but like imagine if it was literal?

 

[chuckm]

Her only major gold medals (Skate Canada 2001 and 2002 Olympics) were won because Kwan and Slutskaya didn't skate well. Sarah skated really well only that once, at the Olympics, because she thought she had no chance to win and she was able to skate full out because for once, her nerves didn't hold her back. If she had skated AFTER Kwan and Slutskaya, I doubt she would have been able to skate nearly as well.

 

[chuckm]

Sending irina flowers is so nasty! I mean it really is a joke I guess but like imagine if it was literal?

While Irina Slutskaya admired and liked Michelle Kwan (she said after the 2002 Olympics that she wouldn't have minded so much losing to Michelle) she absolutely despised Sarah Hughes. In an interview, she once referred to Sarah as 'that cow'.

 

[TontoK]

I think Scott is referring to Irina finishing 2nd in the LP, beating Michelle.

If my memory is working, Michelle won the SP, and would have won the OGM had she finished 2nd to Sarah in the LP.

Because she finished 4th in the SP, Sarah needed help to get the gold. Irina provided it.

 

[gmyers]

Well the context seemed to be at first thanking slutskaya for "bombing" or not doing any triple triples but flowers for skating well enough to beat Kwan would be different but anyway I can't imagine getting flowers from someone who beat you would have the potential to be terrible!!!

 

[chuckm]

Irina probably would have stuffed the flowers you know where!