Against a backdrop of judging controversy and a threat by Russia to withdraw its athletes from the Olympics, the United States’ Sarah Hughes scored the greatest upset in the history of Olympic women’s figure skating Thursday night.
Coming from fourth after the short program, Hughes won the free skate over stumbling teammate Michelle Kwan and Russia’s Irina Slutskaya, leaving Slutskaya to take the silver and the favored Kwan with bronze.
“Being fourth, I didn’t think about medals like I usually do,” Hughes said. “I didn’t think I had a chance at any medal, let alone the gold. I knew the competition was really tough.”
Hughes, at 16 the youngest in the field, is the seventh U.S. skater to win the Olympic women’s title, but the first to do it without ever having won a national title. She was third at last month’s U.S. championships.
Hughes also became the first woman in Olympic history to land two triple jump-triple jump combinations in a four-minute free skate. Then she had to wait nearly 30 minutes more for the three women who had finished ahead of her in Tuesday’s short program to skate.
All three made significant mistakes, giving the judges the chance to make a decision that could restore some badly needed credibility to the sport.
“OK, this is no pressure point,” Hughes said as she waited for the scores of Slutskaya, the final skater. To win, Hughes needed Slutskaya to finish ahead of Kwan in the free skate.
In the four Olympics and 11 world championships since skating has used its current placement system, with the short program worth one-third and the free skate two-thirds of the final score, this is the first time a woman has come from fourth after the short program to win.
When Hughes saw Slutskaya had done that, Hughes and her coach, Robin Wagner, threw themselves into an embrace that knocked both off the bench on which they had been sitting.
“I hope something good will be the final word about figure skating as we leave the Olympics,” Wagner said.
Sasha Cohen was fourth, giving the three U.S. women finishes that matched the strong performance at the 1992 Olympics.
Hughes gave a breathtaking performance to “Daphnis and Chloe.” Purists may carp that Hughes does a quarter-rotation on the ice on her triple-triple combos, rather than all three in the air, but there was little to argue with the flow and grace of four minutes that also included seven triple jumps, including four in barely a minute.
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to skate this way again,” Hughes said, “but some people never have the performance of their life. I’m just glad mine came at the Olympic Games.”
Kwan, second at the 1998 Olympics when she again was favored, failed to clutch the golden fleece she now has chased for more than six years. When she failed to do her planned triple-triple combination, landing the first on two feet and turning the second jump into a double, it was apparent she was in trouble. An ungainly landing that produced a splattered finish on a triple flip was too much for her to overcome.
“You always want to be in the category of (gold medalists) Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Fleming and Brian Boitano,” Kwan said. “I have to remind myself to keep my head high. It wasn’t meant to be.”
Four and one-half hours before the leaders skated, the Russian Olympic Committee held a news conference to protest its athletes’ being “humiliated” and unfairly judged.
The Russians’ complaints looked like a shot across the bow, but aimed more at the officials in Friday’s U.S.-Russia hockey game than the judges who worked the women’s skating final. It may have been too late for the Russians to lobby against a home-cooked decision for Kwan, because the judges would have been in a room at the ice center while the news conference was taking place.
Slutskaya’s subpar performance, which included several awkward jump landings, wound up being judged as second best. Her silver medal still is the best Olympic placement ever for a Russian woman in singles.
Hughes’ free-skate victory was not unanimous. With marks of mainly 5.8, she was first on five judges’ cards but fourth in the voting of the Russian and Danish judges. Slutskaya had the other four firsts.
The Finnish and U.S. judges proved critical to Hughes’ win. Both had Kwan third and Slutskaya second in the free skate. Had either seen it the other way, with Kwan second, she would have won the title.
When she came into the post-competition press conference, Kwan was wearing a plastic gold medal Hamill had given her.
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“This isn’t as heavy as the other medal,” Kwan said of the bronze, also around her neck, “but it’s the color I wanted.”
It comes down to a tiebreaker
The short program is worth one-third and the free program is worth two-thirds of the total score.
Based on the nine judges’ marks, the skaters get a factored placement for each program. The lowest total of the two factored placements determines the winner.
– After the short program Michelle Kwan with a 0.5 factored placement score was first, Irina Slutskaya (1.0) second, Sasha Cohen (1.5) third and Sarah Hughes (2.0) fourth.
– In the free program, factors were 1.0 for first (Hughes), 2.0 for second (Slutskaya), 3.0 for third (Kwan).
– So the totals were Hughes 3.0, Slutskaya 3.0 and Kwan 3.5.
In the case of a tie, the skater with the lower free skate score is the winner. Thus, Hughes won.