Sarah Elizabeth Hughes (born May 2, 1985 in Great Neck, New York) is the Olympic gold medalist in women's figure skating in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

A resident of Great Neck, New York, Hughes won a surprising, close contest in the 2002 Olympic women's figure skating event, narrowly edging Russia's Irina Slutskaya on a tiebreaker after Michelle Kwan faltered. In her long program, Hughes landed seven triple jumps, including two triple-triple combinations. She had been in fourth place going into the long program.

Although she appeared on the cover of Time magazine the week before the event, Hughes was considered the second-best American skater at the 2002 Olympics, behind favorite Michelle Kwan.

Sarah is the fourth of six children; her father is a Canadian of Irish descent and her mother is a Jewish American. Her younger sister, Emily Hughes, is the women's 2006 bronze medalist in the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships.

She is an undergraduate at Yale University, but took the 2004-2005 year off to skate professionally with the Smuckers Stars on Ice tour company. In 2002, she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

--Wikipedia