Born: 1985 (Great Neck, New York)
Biography:
Sarah Elizabeth Hughes (born May 2, 1985) is an American politician and former competitive figure skater. She was the 2002 Olympic Champion and the 2001 World bronze medalist in ladies’ singles.
Personal Life:
Hughes was born in Great Neck, New York, a suburb on Long Island. Her father, John Hughes, was a Canadian of Irish descent and was one of the captains of the undefeated and untied NCAA champion 1969–70 Cornell University ice hockey team. Her mother, Amy Pastarnack, is Jewish and is a breast cancer survivor. This led Hughes to become an advocate for breast cancer awareness. She appeared in a commercial for General Electric promoting breast cancer awareness and research. Hughes stated: I always said that if I can get one person to get a mammogram, I’ve accomplished something.
Among the other causes Hughes supports are Figure Skating in Harlem, which provides free ice skating lessons and academic tutoring for girls in the Harlem community in New York City. Hughes has supported this program for over ten years.
Hughes attended Great Neck North High School. In 2003, she began her studies at Yale University where she was in Timothy Dwight College. On May 25, 2009, Hughes graduated from Yale and received a bachelor’s degree in American studies with a concentration in U.S. politics and communities. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School on May 15, 2018. As of May 2023, Hughes was pursuing a business degree at Stanford University.
Hughes had previously dated former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani in 2011, whom she had befriended since 2005.[10] Sarah Hughes is the fourth of six children. One of her younger sisters, Emily, is also a figure skater and competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics.[11] She is the cousin of Gregg Opie Hughes, from the Opie and Anthony radio show.[12]
Skating Career:
Hughes began skating at the age of three.[13] Robin Wagner, who also choreographed for her from 1994, became her head coach in January 1998.[13]
Hughes won the junior title at the 1998 U.S. Championships in the 1997–1998 season. The following season, she competed on the ISU Junior Grand Prix and won the silver medal at the 1998–1999 Junior Grand Prix Final. She also took silver at the 1999 World Junior Championships held in November 1998.
At the 1999 U.S. Championships, Hughes won the pewter medal in her senior-level debut. As the fourth-place finisher, Hughes would not normally have received one of the three spots for U.S. ladies at the 1999 World Championships, however, Naomi Nari Nam, the silver medalist, was not age-eligible for the event according to ISU rules. Hughes was likewise not age-eligible, but at the time a loophole existed for skaters who had medaled at the World Junior Championships, and she was allowed to compete at Worlds, where she finished 7th.
In the 2000–2001 season, after failing to qualify for the 2001 World Championships, Hughes made a coaching change and began working with Robin Wagner. She won the bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She won the free skate with a performance many considered technically superior to Slutskaya’s, but a botched combination (the same jump combination she had fallen on in the short program) in her short program, where she finished seventh, left her improbably off the podium and even more improbably with the basic math involving skaters in sports whose scoring was arcane.
Hughes became the first American woman since Peggy Fleming in 1968 to win the Olympic title. She is the second of three American ladies to have won an Olympic title, after Peggy Fleming and before Dorothy Hamill. Hughes performed all seven triple jumps in the free skate, but did not attempt a triple-triple combination. Her Olympic title placed her 14th in an ESPN poll of North American athletes of the century.
Awards:
– 2002 Olympic Champion in ladies’ singles
– 2001 World bronze medalist in ladies’ singles.