[Article] Hughes contemplates competing in '10 Olympics

[JOHIO2]

Putting aside the body shape and conditioning issues, Sarah hasn't had the same pounding of jumping much these past few years. Could she get back into competitive shape with training? Who knows. But HER body hasn't had the same stresses of her contemporaries who've continued training and competing. Wonder what that adds to the equation?

 

[jesslily]

Sarah has the gold, no matter how well she knows what it took to get there, she tends to forget many things, like years of continue hard training, many professionals help, youthful young body easy to jump...most important thing is she has achieve the status, is she willing and determined to do it second time? It definitely takes twice of effort to attend Olympics again. She will not have all the resources she needs.

 

[JOHIO2]

Personally, I think she just said it to have something to say. I truly doubt she's serious about it, but a girl can dream, can't she? After all, that's how she got that OGM.

 

[soogar]

Sarah has the gold, no matter how well she knows what it took to get there, she tends to forget many things, like years of continue hard training, many professionals help, youthful young body easy to jump...most important thing is she has achieve the status, is she willing and determined to do it second time? It definitely takes twice of effort to attend Olympics again. She will not have all the resources she needs.

Well maybe Sarah is getting inspiration from her sister. Emily didn't have the "easy" ride Sarah has had yet she perseveres and is finally attaining success. And Emily doesn't have the thin body Sarah had when she was competing. Emily is falling hard on those jumps but she keeps getting back up. In fact, if Sarah got into shape, her body would look very similar to Emily's.

 

[slutskayafan21]

Well who can really tell what the Canadian ladies scene will look like in 4 years. New people might crop up. It certainly perked up a bit since the last Olympics.

It hasnt perked up that much. Last year at Nationals Mrs. Cynthia Phaneuf landed only ONE clean triple jump, and still took second place extremely easily, by a huge margin, aided by some extremely generous PCS scores I might add. Mira Leung who is one of the next best, after Rochette and Phaneuf, skated near flawless, with only a discounted spin in the short program, and a fall on footwork in the long as errors, even without those and Phaneuf's disaester in the long she would have been well beat in the points. Lesley Hawker who was 3rd after the short would have needed a squeeky clean long program with all 7 triples landed to even have a chance to pass Phaneuf.

There is not that much depth in Canadian womens skating today, and with Phaneuf in a confidence crisis, and Rochette struggling to reach the elite group, the picture is not as bright as us Canadians would like to think it is.

 

[slutskayafan21]

I think saying Sarah Hughes was a fluke Olympic Gold medalist is very very harsh. She is not a favorite of mine by a long shot. However she had established herself as a contender going into the Salt Lake City Olympics, and had been a contender on the scene for the last 2(perhaps 3)seasons at that point. I think everybody knew she had no chance of actually winning the gold in a flawlessly skated event, and could easily not medal in a flawlessly skated event, but that is not what occured. However her win was a deserving Olympic Gold medal winning skate, not some moderate effort that won by default since there was nothing better performed like Shen/Zhou's flawed winning performance from the weak post-Olympic 2002 Worlds, or Eltsova/Bushkov's from the error-strewn 96 Worlds, or Yagudin's from a depleted mens field at the 98 Worlds. Her performance was memorable and exceptional, it was inflated by some experts perhaps in some ways, calling it the most technicaly difficult program ever and historic is highly questionable, since Irina has done triple lutz/triple loop and triple sal/triple loop in her performances before(did both at 2000 GP final, and I believe at 2001 Nationals), and Ito in fact has trumped both with her best jumping performances including triple axels and other triple/triples.
That is the excitement of the moment of some though, it is not her fault.

Keep in mind Sarah did win a bronze medal at the 2001 Worlds, over Butyrskaya who was a rival of Kwan's and Slutskaya's for the previous 3 seasons. Keep in mind Butyrskaya not only won Worlds in 99 over a subpar Kwan, but won the short program over both Kwan and Slutskaya at the 2000 Worlds, and should have beaten Slutskaya at 2000-01 season NHK losing a hugely controversial split decision which would have made her the only woman to be undefeated on the GP series that year. So she did rival Kwan and Slutskaya somewhat, and Hughes managed to gain the podium by bumping her off. She did win the GP final bronze two straight years, once again beating Butryskaya at both events. She did win Skate Canada that year, beating both Slutskaya and Kwan for the first time ever, personally I thought Irina was robbed big-time in the short where she was put below Kwan who fell, despite what I considered a smaller error(doubling her lutz), which cost her the win since she won the long over Sarah, but that is just my opinion, results are results. She had medalled at the last 3 straight U.S nationals, and finished a strong 5th at 2000 Worlds. So she had been a contender on the scene for awhile, somebody who tried difficult jumps, was very consistent, reasonably polished, and good enough to step into any void others made with their mistakes. That is what happened in SLC but I dont consider her having "come out of nowhere" or "a fluke" or "won out of nowhere".

 

[mzheng]

I think saying Sarah Hughes was a fluke Olympic Gold medalist is very very harsh.....

How about 'all star just lined up for her that night"?.....not only she had to skate 'once life time' LP, but also ALL the three skaters before her had to 'fault'. If include the other night (such as SP night), she got luck there too.......Yeah, yeah, I know someone will chime in that Sasha's 'fault' on LP was an 'expected' one. But it was only after another 3 years post 2002 SLC, that she proved she could not skate a clean LP in final phase. Back then ppl did expect her skating clean.

 

[Mathman]

Keep in mind Sarah did win a bronze medal at the 2001 Worlds, over Butyrskaya who was a rival of Kwan's and Slutskaya's for the previous 3 seasons. Keep in mind Butyrskaya not only won Worlds in 99 over a subpar Kwan, but won the short program over both Kwan and Slutskaya at the 2000 Worlds, and should have beaten Slutskaya at 2000-01 season NHK losing a hugely controversial split decision which would have made her the only woman to be undefeated on the GP series that year. So she did rival Kwan and Slutskaya somewhat, and Hughes managed to gain the podium by bumping her off. She did win the GP final bronze two straight years, once again beating Butryskaya at both events...

That was the most exciting subplot in competitive skating that year. Sarah kept gaining and gaining and gaining on Maria (a great champion in her own right) that year. Could the new kid on the block catch up in time, or would the elegant mature artist be able to hold the kid off and make the Olympic podium at last?

MM

 

[slutskayafan21]

How about 'all star just lined up for her that night"?.....not only she had to skate 'once life time' LP, but also ALL the three skaters before her had to 'fault'. If include the other night (such as SP night), she got luck there too.......Yeah, yeah, I know someone will chime in that Sasha's 'fault' on LP was an 'expected' one. But it was only after another 3 years post 2002 SLC, that she proved she could not skate a clean LP in final phase. Back then ppl did expect her skating clean.

You are right that is exactly what I was going to step in and say regarding Cohen, and I still will. For her landing 6 of 7 triples, and doing so with her only error being a fall at the end of a triple lutz/triple toe is the best one can realisticaly expect of her. She has never done a clean long program in major competition, or even the U.S nationals, NEVER! People expected Cohen to skate clean back in 2002, since it was not yet proven she could not skate a clean LP in phase until 3 years more of not doing it? I dont know who ever told you that, but it is amazing how media hype can sway all of us and create false illusions of somebody. There was no reason given Cohen's history already in the sport, coming up in 2000-2002, to expect her to do a clean LP. I would say her long program in SCL was sensational for her standards and she should be thrilled with it.

 

[slutskayafan21]

That was the most exciting subplot in competitive skating that year. Sarah kept gaining and gaining and gaining on Maria (a great champion in her own right) that year. Could the new kid on the block catch up in time, or would the elegant mature artist be able to hold the kid off and make the Olympic podium at last?

MM

I agree, the Hughes-Butyrskaya rivalry was one of the most intriguing subplots in skating those two seasons, and inevitably leading it seemed to Hughes quest to justify her place as the up and coming star with an Oly medal in SLC, and Butryrskaya's to end a distinguished career with an Oly medal in SLC, the one elusive honor in her career. It wasnt until just before the Olympics that Cohen was thrust into a contenders role, and Butyrskaya was shaft aside. The Hughes-Butyrskaya battle, young vs old, was a great subplot to the stellar battles between Kwan-Slutskaya though.

 

[soogar]

It hasnt perked up that much. Last year at Nationals Mrs. Cynthia Phaneuf landed only ONE clean triple jump, and still took second place extremely easily, by a huge margin, aided by some extremely generous PCS scores I might add. Mira Leung who is one of the next best, after Rochette and Phaneuf, skated near flawless, with only a discounted spin in the short program, and a fall on footwork in the long as errors, even without those and Phaneuf's disaester in the long she would have been well beat in the points. Lesley Hawker who was 3rd after the short would have needed a squeeky clean long program with all 7 triples landed to even have a chance to pass Phaneuf.

There is not that much depth in Canadian womens skating today, and with Phaneuf in a confidence crisis, and Rochette struggling to reach the elite group, the picture is not as bright as us Canadians would like to think it is.

Well Joannie is a huge step up from Robinson.

 

[slutskayafan21]

Well Joannie is a huge step up from Robinson.

I agree, and hopefully her World rankings will start reflecting it soon, if she skates well at Worlds/Olympics. The unfortuante part is the rest of the World has improved too, and there is even more depth now. The fact that one of the greatest female skaters ever, MIchelle Kwan, looks like she might be on the outside looking in as far as medals go, even if it under a new COP and with her having to fight with injuries and questionable decisions to keep skipping the GP series the last couple seasons when she was healthy, is a testement to that.

Rochette is head and shoulders above Robinson though IMO. I dont want to diminish Robinson in any way, she was a fine skater. Rochette though is much faster, her jump technique is far superior, her overall command of the ice and flow is another league.

 

[euterpe]

How do you KNOW Kwan was healthy the last few seasons? Kwan has never been one to talk to the press or anyone else about her personalpersonal issues. But Kwan has alluded to problems with her back as early as the summer of 2002 when she was in China. And last season, she avoided doing a layback spin in her Campbell's performance saying it was causing her pain. Shortly after that, she withdrew from her GP assignments.

I am convinced that the back/hip problem is of long duration, and Kwan tried to build up to this season by starting to train hard during this past summer. But it caught up with her just the same.

 

[soogar]

How do you KNOW Kwan was healthy the last few seasons? Kwan has never been one to talk to the press or anyone else about her personalpersonal issues. But Kwan has alluded to problems with her back as early as the summer of 2002 when she was in China. And last season, she avoided doing a layback spin in her Campbell's performance saying it was causing her pain. Shortly after that, she withdrew from her GP assignments.

I am convinced that the back/hip problem is of long duration, and Kwan tried to build up to this season by starting to train hard during this past summer. But it caught up with her just the same.

Show me a skater who doesn't skate with physical problems who is over the age of 15 (and even 15 year olds skate with problems). At least Kwan has the ability to skip events and the GP without worrying about her standing and money. She's not in the position an Evan is in who skates even though he had/has a stress fracture in his hip and Plushenko who has been skating with problems forever.

 

[soogar]

How about 'all star just lined up for her that night"?.....not only she had to skate 'once life time' LP, but also ALL the three skaters before her had to 'fault'. If include the other night (such as SP night), she got luck there too.......Yeah, yeah, I know someone will chime in that Sasha's 'fault' on LP was an 'expected' one. But it was only after another 3 years post 2002 SLC, that she proved she could not skate a clean LP in final phase. Back then ppl did expect her skating clean.

Sarah (and her coach Robin) lined up her own stars with her consistent skating throughout her career. She had been doing different 3-3s in competition throughout the years and had a lot of experience with them and that experience paid off big in the LP.