Amazing Moments in Olympic History: Sarah Hughes’ Unforgettable Comeback

With the 2009 Figure Skating National Championships on the horizon, we profile one of the most unexpected comebacks in women's figure skating. 

At the 2002 National Championships, Sarah Hughes won the bronze medal and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team.  Heading into the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games she was often overshadowed by teammates Michelle Kwan, the "queen" of figure skating who was favored to win gold, and Sasha Cohen, whose graceful yet athletic style was a sure attention-grabber.

Coming out of the short program at the Games, Hughes was in fourth place and a long-shot for the gold.  She made changes to her long program, making it one of the most technically difficult long programs ever performed in Olympic competition.  She nailed it.  But that would not be enough.  She not only needed Kwan, who was in first place, to falter in the long program, but another skater also had to outperform Kwan, moving her to third place.

The stars aligned for Hughes as both Kwan and Cohen made mistakes and Russian Irina Slutskaya delivered a lackluster performance.  At the end of the night, Kwan was in third place, Slutskaya in second and Hughes in first.  Sarah Hughes had become one of the most unlikely and unforgettable Olympic Champions in the history of women's figure skating. 

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"Amazing Moments in Olympic History" will be published every Wednesday on teamusa.org.  Check back weekly to see more landmark achievements and incredible feats in the history of Team USA and the Olympic Movement.