Roses rained from the heights of the Salt Lake Ice Center Thursday night as Americans cheered their new Olympic figure skating gold medalist. But it wasn't Michelle Kwan.
In an unprecedented move from fourth to first place, Sarah Hughes claimed the gold medal in her first Olympic appearance. With a near-flawless free skate, the 16-year-old surpassed Russian powerhouse Irina Slutskaya, who won silver, and American icon Michelle Kwan, who won the bronze medal.
Late Thursday, however, Russian Olympic officials filed a formal protest of the results, saying Slutskaya skated well enough to win the gold. In their protest filed with the referee, Russian Olympic officials accused the judges of bias.
"Canadian pairs skaters were awarded their gold medals," said Viktor Mamatov, head of the Russian delegation in Salt Lake City. "Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya."
His comments referred to an earlier skating controversy in which a judge was suspended for misconduct and the International Olympic Committee — upon the International Skating Union's recommendation — gave a second gold medal to the Canadian pairs skating team.
At a news conference today, Hughes said it's not up to her to decide whether Slutskaya deserves a gold medal. "I don't really know what's going on. I'm just happy I have one gold medal."
Her coach, however, was more decisive in her assessment. "I thought clearly last night that Sarah's performance was the best," Robin Wagner said.
Hughes said she has not yet decided whether she will turn pro. Her next goal, she said in typical 16-year-old fashion, is to get marks in the high 1500s in her SATs.
In Thursday's free skate, Hughes put everything she had on the ice, and the ice was kind to her. She completed the only clean program (with the usual caveats about her under-rotated jumps) among the top four ladies. With youthful abandon, the 16-year-old New Yorker landed seven triple jumps, including a triple Salchow-triple loop combination, and a triple toe loop-triple loop combination.
But she still had to wait for the last four women to skate to find out if she would medal. She needed help from all three opponents — teammate Sasha Cohen, who was in third place after the short program; Slutskaya; and Kwan.
She got it.
If any of the top three women had won the free skate, they would have won the event. But none did, and a door opened for Hughes.
Cohen fell on her opening jump combination and slipped to fourth place. Kwan followed and had a similar fall on her triple flip. Then came Slutskaya, the last skater of the evening. Only she could stand in the way of Hughes winning gold — and at that point, only she could boost Hughes to the top of the podium.
She did the latter.
Slutskaya had an awkward forward landing on her triple flip in a program that seemed lackluster and tentative. Judges zinged her, giving Hughes the gold by a 5-4 split.
"Sarah skating great today," Slutskaya said. "Yeah, I'm good skater, and I skate good today. But judges take the choice, and that's it."
"Oh well, I work so hard this year for my second mark," she said. "Get mostly 5.7, 5.8. Here, I see 5.6, and I have shock."
But Slutskaya stopped short of the kind of outright criticisms Russian Olympic officials had made earlier when they threatened to pull all of their remaining athletes from competition because of what they said was systematic undermarking and unfair judging during these Olympics.
Television cameras relayed Hughes' reaction from the locker room, where she waited for the results. When it was clear she had won, she was stunned.
"I didn't think it was possible after the short (program), being fourth," Hughes said. "It's wonderful, more than I ever dreamed of. I went out and had a great time.
"I said, 'Heck with it,' " she said of her performance. "I just went out and did anything I could. I was in shock. I've never skated that well anywhere in my whole life, and I figured if there was any place to do it, this was it."
Kwan, wiping away tears, showed Nagano-like dignity in defeat. Her performance, as it was at the 1998 Olympics, was nervous and restrained; her jumps small, as if she carried the weight of mountainous expectations on her back every time she leaped.
But there was courage in Kwan — after she fell midway through her "Scheherazade" program; she came back to land three more triple jumps: the Salchow, Lutz and toe loop. The crowd, which exploded following Hughes' performance, gently nudged the 1998 silver medalist on to the end of her program.
"I heard the audience try to lift my spirits when they started clapping in the middle of the program," Kwan said. "I made a few mistakes, but I kept on going. It just wasn't meant to be tonight."
Wagner had nothing but praise for Kwan today. "Michelle has been a guiding light for figure skating. she has always been gracious. She has always been classy," Hughes' coach said. "I don't think that this will diminish what she means to figure skating."
Contributing: Marita Titze and The Associated Press
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