Sarah Hughes

nicole_l · Feb 4, 2005

Personally I think that it's a little distasteful to talk about someone's perceived weight on a message board, especially a classy one like Golden Skate. Sarah looks normal for a person who hasn't been in competitive shape for the past two years. She's not flabby. She's not chubby. She's not on the heavy side. She looks like she's at the correct weight, and hey, going out there and skating two or three programs, even if they're light on content, still takes a lot of work.
I've never really been a fan of Sarah's skating but to think that a 5'3'' girl (that's what ISU says, anyway) who's turning 20 tomorrow is 150 lbs is pretty ridiculous.
Thanks but I thought it was pretty rude of us to discuss this on Dee's thread.

Terri · Feb 4, 2005

She's actually about 5'6" and her birthday is May 2.

Fossi · Feb 4, 2005

People are jealous of Sarah Hughes, that's all.
Some think it's terrible to criticize Irina's skating "because she is ill," but it's okay to call Sarah Hughes fat.

Yes, there is a double standard and I won't stand for it.
Sarah is NOT fat. She is a normal size for a girl and healthy. Sasha Cohen is downright scary thin, and nobody calls her names. Personally, I'm glad Sarah is a normal, healthy role model. The world has enough problems with anorexic teenagers......Sarah will be a great person for people to continue to look up to.

R.D. · Feb 4, 2005

I SERIOUSLY do not understand HOW people could think she is "overweight". Bit sour still, maybe?

She is anything but that. I think the difference is that all the other skaters are downright thin and she may look bigger compared to them. Maybe this causes that illusion. Plus, remember that rule about cameras?

Pau-goodle76 · Feb 4, 2005

I, too, don't think Sarah is fat. She has a woman's body now and I'm very glad for that. She has curves where they're supposed to be instead of bones poking out at you where you can count them one by one! It really upset me when I read somewhere where someone called Michelle Kwan fat, because she is far from fat. The person then went on to say that Sasha Cohen and Kimmie M. had the perfect bodies. Don't know about you guys but I just want to tell them to go eat a ham sandwich or 2 or something.

heyang · Feb 4, 2005

I think Sarah just needs a lot of toning and so do I, too. You really can't compare her to MK and SC because they have totally different body types.

Some people commented on MK's 'fat', but I think they just used the wrong term. Again, it was really an expectation that her body didn't seem as 'tight'.

It's something that really is expected of an athlete. For the rest of couch potatoes, being flabby is ok. The image of the athletes body is little fat and tight muscles. Anything loose is anti-image. The rest of us would give up a lot to have that kind of body, but unwilling to do the work.

nicole_l · Feb 5, 2005

She's actually about 5'6" and her birthday is May 2.

My mistake.

Linny · Feb 5, 2005

People in the Spotlight

Personnally, while it's not the most high class thang in the world, I don't find it distasteful to "dish" about people in the spotlight. I'm not talking about photographers who lurk behind bushes and stand out in the rain just to get a pictured of a celebraty not looking their best... I'm referring to speculations about people who have chosen careers that put them in the spotlight.

Sarah knew that she wasn't in the same shape as her Oly days, but was still motivated to take to the spotlight. I'm pleased that she did. I'm sure I'll enjoy her performance when SOI comes to my area... but if people want to "dish" about her, that's fine.

Which is not to say I think she's overweight. I think she looks terrific. I get up early every morning and work out in an attempt to look as terrific as she does.

Linny

NJSk8Fan · Feb 5, 2005

Possibly what is causing people to say Sarah is overweight is because compared to many of the skaters she "LOOKS" overweight. She probably is at a healthy weight for a girl her age and size, but for the "norm" in skaters, I don't think it would hurt her to drop a few pounds...but mostly to tone up.
We DO have to remember she has just come off a period of time where she was not skating and therefore probably not doing the types of exercises she'd normally do if she had been skating all along.
Obviously she can't be too overweight or she'd never be able to keep up with the pace of the SOI tour!
I'm anxious to see Sarah live on 2/25 to see for myself how she looks and how she's skating so I can compare what I think to everything I've been reading.

gezando · Feb 5, 2005

Sarah is not overweight, she is just right. Just for having this discussion, is IMHO a reflection of the culture of thin (extremely thin, unhealthy thin) is popular.

I remember some journalist wrote it is so fortunate for USA to have a skater, a reigining OGM who looks like a normal teenager with normal weight, contrast to the 2002 Olympics ladies 4th place finisher who looked unreally thin

After the 2002 Vogue article about women with different body types, including a size zero skater, here is an article written in response :http://slate.msn.com/?id=2063972

A healthy teenage look beats an "anorexo porn size zero" look anyday

Tonichelle · Feb 5, 2005

I too agree that Sarah is a great roll model for girls her(our) age

She also has a bigger bust size than most skaters(and she didn't have to find a plastic sergeon!) which tends to make a woman look "larger"

besides, the cameras add 10 pounds (believe me, some skaters are so different looking in person... Michelle and Sasha are two that I was :eek:

going "that's not what they look like on tv!" :laugh:

)

RIskatingfan · Feb 5, 2005

So Hughes is overweight and she's doing a skating tour with 60 dates where she skates SIX numbers every night, plus transitions. Makes perfect sense, of course LOL

euterpe · 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. If Sarah was her present size and was doing at least a few triple jumps that more than barely cleared the ice, there wouldn't be as many comments about her weight.

It's more about her physical fitness and ability to skate than her size.

In Tara Lipinski's last year with SOI, many who went to SOI complained that she did little more than stroke. People didn't realize that she was suffering from severe athritis and was in pain, and they couldn't understand why she did so little in the way of skating.

People pay high prices for show tickets expecting to see the headlining skaters perform at a reasonably high level of skill.

JonnyCoop · Feb 5, 2005

NJSk8Fan said:
Possibly what is causing people to say Sarah is overweight is because compared to many of the skaters she "LOOKS" overweight. She probably is at a healthy weight for a girl her age and size, but for the "norm" in skaters, I don't think it would hurt her to drop a few pounds...but mostly to tone up.

ITA. It's kind of like Jane Krakowski on "Ally McBeal" -- she was probably the one woman on that show who was actually at a good healthy weight, but she was standing next to the likes of Callista Flockhart and Portia deRossi and by comparison to those women, she looked huge. If the camera does in fact add ten pounds, then some of these ladies must be positively TRANSPERENT in person.

Skating has become notorious the last couple of decades for undue fascination with a skater's weight. And the men get their share of it, too; Brian Boitano was continually being told he was too fat, or getting that way. [??????? !!!!] (And even Michael Weiss, who coming from a family of athletes should know better, has bought into it as well and IMO a lot of his skating ability has been lost in his quest to "trim down"). A lot of careers have been ruined or curtailed by coaches and even officials who want certain skaters to go around 10, 20 pounds under the weight they should be. It simply must STOP.

thisthingcalledlove · Feb 5, 2005

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?)

Tonichelle · Feb 5, 2005

thisthingcalledlove said:
(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?)

that's almost a line from FRIENDS... when they show "fat monica" in a "family video" and everyone starts making fun of her and Monica says the camera adds 10 pounds, Chandler pipes up "So how many cameras were on you?" :laugh:

hockeyfan228 · Feb 5, 2005

RIskatingfan said:
So Hughes is overweight and she's doing a skating tour with 60 dates where she skates SIX numbers every night, plus transitions. Makes perfect sense, of course LOL

Oleg Oksiannikov did something similar for several years at a less than ideal weight for a skater. (I think he looked grand, not like a starving whippet, but that's me.) Mark Morris still dances, and now he is considered a little on the chubby side for a civilian. Neither does routines, though, that require more in technique and stamina than they have at their relatively old ages (for a skater or a dancer). And both did/do brilliantly within their limitations.

Hughes is doing very small doubles without particularly good technique. Cohen looks like a "big" jumper by comparison, and Sato looks like a giant. Her spiral edges were shaky, and her basic skating is acceptable, but not nearly in the league of any of her colleagues in the show, at least at this point. It doesn't sound like a month into the tour that she's in any better shape than when she started, but touring in general is not the place to get in shape, given the lack of training time, long travel, and catch-as-you can meals. She's not attempting much beyond what someone in her shape could attempt, but what's disappointing is not the lack of power or rotations in her jumps, but that except for a bit of charm, there's not all that much to look at in her performance.

There's a documentary about Suzanne Farrell which begins with her saying that the 40-years-older Balanchine once said to her, "If I weren't a choreographer, you wouldn't look at me twice," and she replied, "George, if I weren't a ballerina, you wouldn't look at me twice." 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.

Grgranny · Feb 5, 2005

I just saw her live at SOI in Wichita and shook her hand and she is a little on the heavy side. She didn't seem to be any 5 ft. 6 even with skates on. I'm about 5 ft 5 1/2 ( used to be 5 ft 9).!! She seemed shorter even with skates on.

Fossi · Feb 5, 2005

I think Sarah is getting ready for a comeback.
If she gets it together for Olympics I have no doubt she will be a contendor. Wouldn't that be exciting?

gezando · Feb 5, 2005

Fossi said:
I think Sarah is getting ready for a comeback.
If she gets it together for Olympics I have no doubt she will be a contendor. Wouldn't that be exciting?

I will be thrilled if Hughs #1 is preparing for a comeback. Honestly I am looking forward to Hughs #2 doing well in 06

Sarah Hughes

nicole_l

Terri

Fossi

R.D.

Pau-goodle76

heyang

nicole_l

Linny

NJSk8Fan

gezando

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

RIskatingfan

euterpe

JonnyCoop

thisthingcalledlove

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

hockeyfan228

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl

Fossi

gezando

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