Perfect Balance

Like most world-class figure skaters, 15-year-old Sarah Hughes devotes at least four hours a day to her craft. UNLIKE most world-class figure skaters, Sarah lives at home, goes to a public high school and leads a normal adolescent life, complete with family dinners in Great Neck, NY with her parents and five brothers and sisters.

For Sarah, sit spins and salchows follow science and social studies, and family comes before fame - even as she moves closer to a shot at an Olympic medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. While many elite figure skaters leave home and school to train, Sarah spends her mornings at Great Neck North High Shcool, then travels 45 minutes to a rink in Hackensack, NJ. (She completes her coursework in the evenings, with tutors.) "I don't know if I could [go somewhere else] and move in with another family," she says. "That would be a little wierd." The schedule allows Sarah to the keep one skate in the real world. "What I learn at school I take to the ice," she adds. "It helps me stay balanced."

If her dizzying array of jumps and combinations is any indication, balance is something Sarah has always had. She started skating at age four, when her father flooded their backyard and let it freeze over so that the kids would have their own private rink. Then the youngest of the Hughes children, Sarah was always last to have her skates tied by Mom; so eager was little Sarah to hit the ice that at age five, she learned to do the job herself. "I always loved to skate," she recalls. "I never really said, "Now I'm going to be a serious skater."

But that's exactly what she's become. Since bursting on to the scene by winning junior nationals in 1998, she's been considered one of the most athletic performers in women's figure skating. Since last February, although she was among the youngest senior-level competitors at the US Figure Skating Championships, she turned in one of the most technically demanding programs - and earned the bronze medal. "She's developed her own style, which I would describe as a great combination of grace and power," says her coach, Robin Wagner. "She's really starting to put a beautiful picture out there."

And so, not long after grown Sarah has grown used to competeting against her childhood heros -- she vied with Michelle Kwan in two World Championships -- she's on her way to becoming a household name herself. With any luck, the 2002 Olympics will prove to be the icing on the cake.