Female Athletes & Boots Month Sarah Hughes

Female Athletes and Boots Month - Ice Skating Week: Sarah Hughes

Sarah Hughes was the 2002 Gold Medal Winner at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sarah was just 16 at the time, one year older than fellow American Tara Lipinski  who won the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Her victory was the second straight gold medal for Team USA in Women's Singles Figure Skating and was the third out of the previous four Winter Olympic Games along with Krisit Yamaguchi. It would have been the forth consecutive win had it not been for a controversial scoring decision at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillhammer, Norway that prevented Nancy Kerrigan from winning the gold medal. 

Sarah Hughes was a long shot to win the gold medal. Prior to the Olympics, here best performance was winning a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships. Moreover, Sarah was forth in the short program before putting together a solid long program, including seven triple jumps, two of which were triple-triple combinations.  Hughes benefited from skating before the three contenders ahead of her in the standings, all of whom made mistakes to give Sarah the gold medal. 

After finishing high school, Sarah went on to graduate from Yale University with a degree in American Studies. Sarah is an accomplished saxophone player as well. Sarah's younger sister, Emily also competed in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy where she placed fifth. 

One of the great benefits to winning a gold medal is the winner gets to have her picture taken with the incredibly beautiful Sasha Cohen, who won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Games. Sarah is a modest winner. But, she did appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Wheaties made a special tribute box for her. Sarah saves wearing her knee high boots for special occasions, like Heidi Klum's Halloween Party when she dressed up as an adorable kitty cat.

Female Athletes & Boots Month Tara Lipinski

Female Athletes and Boots Month - Ice Skating Week:

Tara Lipinski

In 1998, at the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, Tara Lipinski became the youngest female athlete to win a gold medal during a winter olympics at the age of 15! 

Tara was in a fierce competition for the gold medal with fellow American skater, Michelle Kwan. Kwan had skated before Lipinski and skated a perfect program. However, Tara had the advantage of skating second and knew the score she had to beat to win the gold medal. This is a huge advantage because it meant that she knew she had to be more bold in her performance and attempt the most difficult aspects of her program to win. Tara did indeed skate a flawless program including seven triples, an historic triple loop/triple loop combination and at the very end of her long program, a triple toe/half loop/triple salchow sequence. When Tara landed her final jump, she knew she had just won the gold medal and the smile on her face is one of the most moving events in sports history.  The rest of  her program was extremely emotional. Rarely, do we get to watch an athlete compete and celebrate during their performance. Lipinski skated the rest of her program with pure joy. Michelle Kwan was crushed, but it was impossible not to root to Lipinski. 

Tara retired from amateur skating and turned professional, instead of training to compete in the 2002 Winter Games. Tara and her mother had spent the final two years leading up to the 1998 Olympics training in Detroit, Michigan, while her father lived and worked in Texas. Tara felt that training for another Olympics was too much strain on her family. Lipinski toured with Champions on Ice and later with Stars on Ice. 

As Tara became older she discovered knee high boots and added several pairs to her wardrobe. She wore her boots at public appearance, out to clubs and acted as a runway model at a fashion show in Los Angeles. Tara is only 5'1" and she usually wears black boots to contract her pretty blond hair. Tara also has a favorite pair of light brown suede cowboy boots that she has worn often.  Tara is good friends with fellow American Olympic Silver medalist Sasha Cohen. Tara enjoys life and she frequently shares the same brilliant smile she displayed when she won her gold medal. She will be an Olympic Gold Medalist for the rest of her life.

Lipinski Wins Gold

Also see:
Kristi Yamaguchi - Olympic Gold Medalist
Nancy Kerrigan - Silver and Bronze Olympic Medalist