We've talked so much about the top three. Anyone that wins the free program wins the whole thing, but she's just made a case for herself that those three skaters are gonna have to skate their best!

1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton after Sarah Hughes's free skate

Going into the free skate at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics it looked the US's Sarah Hughes had no chance of winning a medal. She was 4th and competing against 3 of the best skaters in the world; four-time World Champion and 1998 Olympic silver medalist Michelle Kwan, fellow teammate Sasha Cohen and Russia's Irina Slutskaya. The overall consensus was that this would be Michelle Kwan's year to win the gold after finishing second to teammate Tara Lipinski four years earlier.

But there was also a shadow hovering over this Olympics. The judges were under intense scrutiny after a controversial win by the Russians over the Canadians in the pairs skating competition. I covered this scandal in a previous article. Fans and commentators alike were outraged that a performance that was not skated clean won over a performance that was. People were going to be looking at the ladies' event with a more watchful eye to see if these machinations would be repeated.

When Sara Hughes went out onto the ice Michelle, Irina and Sasha hadn't even skated yet. They would skate after her. When figure skating used the old 6.0 scoring system it was common for them to give low marks to save room for other skaters or if there was a deal in place as there was in the pairs competition. This competition would be the last time this scoring system was used. She was also a New Yorker and the year before her state endured the horrors of September 11, 2001. She skated out to her starting position looking as Scott Hamilton put it during his commentary, "Big smile on her face, relaxed. She is so solid." He had no idea just how solid she would be in the next four and a half minutes skating to music from Rachmaninoff and Ravel. She would land four triple jumps within a minute and a half, with two combinations, one a triple-triple combination, another a trouble double. As the second half of her program started, she landed her second triple-triple combination combined with choreography that matched the tone of the music, which was the slower portion. Skaters were only allowed to do seven triples, and she'd already landed 6 cleanly.

"Less than a minute to go. She's only allowed one more triple," former figure skater and choreographer Sandra Bezic.

"She doesn't really need it. I mean, what she's done so far is so spectacular," Scott Hamilton

That speaks volumes. Sandra and Scott were commentators that were difficult to impress as they felt figure skating should focus more on artistry than the jumps. Obviously, they felt Sarah was able to combine the two perfectly that night. The whole arena was cheering before she even finished and when she finished people started throwing flowers and bears all over the ice. When her marks came up the crowed was even more pleased as they ranked her first even though the other skaters hadn't even stepped on the ice yet. The first of the top three to skate was Sasha Cohen, skating to Carmen, the same music that Katarina Witt wowed audiences with in 1988 and Sasha did the choreography herself and it was beautiful but the fall on the first jump cost her.

Next up was the favorite, Michelle Kwan. It was Michelle's artistry that had many believing the gold was hers but like Sasha, it would be the technical errors that would prove costly and she also looked extremely nervous as she skated out to her position. She had planned to do a triple-triple combination in the opening of her program however she slightly two footed one and doubled the second jump, but the costliest error came in the second half of her program when she stumbled on another jump. Still the crowd cheered her on, wanted her to keep fighting.

The last skater was Irina Slutskaya. Her marks would determine who was on the podium and who wasn't. Irina was known to be a strong technical skater with artistry as her weakness. She was supposed to also do two triple-triple combinations but on one she did something that was new at the time: a three-jump combination, a triple and two doubles. The women in 2026 were doing at least two of these. She two footed another triple jump and almost fell on a third.

The judges took a long time to compile the scores. The final two skaters hadn't skated clean yet if Michelle won the long program, she could still win the gold. The only options for Sarah to win the gold was Michelle had to be ranked third in the long program, or it had to be a tie. Many suspected the gold would go to Michelle as the favorite no matter how many mistakes she made as it had in the pairs event.

When the scores went up it was hard to tell what was going to happen until the second mark came up and it did end in a tie with Sarah Hughes pulling off one of the biggest upsets in figure skating history. The Russian federation attempted to dispute the results, but since Irina had not skated clean, their case was too weak to proceed. Sarah's underdog victory was a bright spot in what had been another scandal filled Winter Olympics.