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2002 gold medalist recently graduated from Yale
BY SAM HITCHCOCK
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
At Yale University, Sarah Hughes was just another young woman at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world — another young woman who did not know what she wanted to do with her life. Like everyone else, she spent hours in the library with her head nestled in textbooks, and wrote numerous papers on her laptop. However, the difference between Hughes and those seated next to her, was that Hughes had already won an Olympic gold medal.
Figure skater Hughes returned to the limelight Wednesday, once again surrounded by hundreds of adoring Americans who came together for the United States Olympic Committee's celebration at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The festival was a reminder to Americans that the Winter Olympics in Vancouver are 100 days away, and Olympians young and old came to show their support and patriotism. Some of the bigger names in attendance included 1980 Gold medalist hockey goalie Jim Craig, 1980 hockey captain Mike Eruzione, and snowboarder gold-medal favorite Gretchen Bleiler.
When talking to Hughes, her hard work and dedication became immediately evident as she explained how she basically sacrificed her entire social life in grade school and high school for figure skating. "My dad played hockey at Cornell, and I started skating when I was three, so I was very young," Hughes, a native of Great Neck, N.Y., said. During her high school years, she traveled daily from Great Neck to the Ice House in Hackensack, N.J. to train.
"Every year that you skate, more and more people drop out of the sport because they develop others interests, especially teenage girls. They want to go out with their friends on Friday nights to the mall and movies, and it can be hard to do that while continuing to spend so much time at the skating rink. That is not always the popular thing to do in high school, but I found a nice distraction in skating. Whenever I had something going on in my life, it was nice to have the consistency of the rink where I could go focus on skating and having thoughts to myself. There you don't have to talk to anyone on the ice."
Of course, this modesty can only go so far, since at every age group she competed in, she starred, medaling in competition after competition, and demonstrating that she had both the talent and charisma to compete on the world stage. Hughes recalled her 2002 gold-medal performance: "I was fourth place in the short program. I'm actually the only person under the old system, because they changed it recently, to ever go from fourth place to winning the whole competition, because in order for that to happen other people have to finish in certain places. I couldn't just finish in first and win." Hughes flashed her famous smile, adding, "I skated well, too. That helped, too." (In her long program, Hughes landed seven triple jumps, and two triple-triple combinations.)
Her charm struck a chord in America's heart, and her fan base was gigantic; after she won the gold medal, she received tons of fan mail and recognition. "It was definitely a little bit crazier than normal," Hughes admitted, smiling again. "No one expected me to win because I was not the premier favorite going in. Being an Olympian is a huge deal with the media... but there's definitely a difference going from being an Olympian to winning it."
Hughes appeared on the cover of Time magazine a week before the 2002 Olympics, and became a household name afterwards.
Hughes graduated from Yale in May 2009 with a B.A. in American Studies and now teaches. She has long been an advocate for Figure Skating in Harlem, an organization that provides free skating lessons and school tutoring to girls in the Harlem, New York area. Hughes also promotes breast cancer awareness.
The most striking part about the interview with Hughes occurred when the tape recorder turned off. She wished me good luck instead of waiting for me to extend my wishes to her. In truth, Sarah Hughes does not need my blessing as she is as ready for the real world as any college graduate.
