"IT'S NICE TO BE IMPORTANT, BUT IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE NICE."

Sarah Hughes was not even really a factor in the women's figure skating competition until earlier this season when she beat both Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya at a Grand Prix of Figure Skating competition in Canada. Now Sarah at 16 has reached the pinnacle of her sport with a final performance that brought both the Olympic Arena and a nationwide TV audience of tens of millions to its feet in rapturous applause and praise for the high school student from Long Island.

Two days before, Sarah Hughes had seemed to join her hands in prayer just before taking to the ice for her short program The packed arena was a cauldron of noise and the 16 year old from Long Island needed just a moment longer to prepare herself for the biggest event of her life. The women's figure skating crown is one of the sporting world's most coveted and her hometown of Great Neck New York now seemed as far away as those first shaky steps onto the ice when she was only three years old. By the time her performance was over Sarah was lying in fourth place behind, Michelle Kwan, the Russian Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen. Sarah defeated Kwan and Slutskaya in last years Skate Canada tournament, and with the long program to look forward to Robin Wagner Sarah's coach believed she was still in an excellent position for a medal.

In her long performance she looked much more relaxed and to another thunderous ovation began the few short minutes of sublimity that would lead her to Olympic glory.

Hughes put in the performance of a lifetime that included seven triple jumps, to win the gold medal.

The national media adore figure skating and its competitors, none more so than the story of Sarah, the youngest of the American skaters at the Salt Lake City Games. Growing up Sarah's father John had built a rink in the yard of the family home in Great Neck, where she practiced skating between the rough and tumble hockey games played by her brothers.

Sarah's father John is originally from Toronto and told me that his father, an Irish immigrant, who worked as a construction worker, once played professional soccer in Ireland in the 1930's. John followed in the sporting footsteps of his father and played in a national championship hockey team while at Cornell University, so it would appear skating is in Sarah's blood. While at Cornel John met his future wife, Amy a native Long Islander, and they have been together since. They have six children, Rebecca 24, David 20, Matt 18, Sarah 16, Emily 13 and Taylor 10.

Like many Irish immigrants John Hughes has worked hard to be where he is today an attorney in Manbanan, and not just any attorney; John is the first non-US. citizen to be admitted to the bar in New York State. He believes in a sound education for his children and Sarah has had private tutoring while training for the games and has expressed an interest in studying medicine at college. With both feet planted firmly on the ground, an Olympic gold medal in her possession and her family behind her, the world certainly haven't heard the last of Sarah Hughes.