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CNN Live Sunday

Olympic Medalist Sarah Hughes Remains Toast of Her Home Town

Aired March 10, 2002 - 18:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A big parade for one of the biggest winner of the Winter Olympics. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Hughes scorched the Olympic ice with her come-from-behind upset in Salt Lake City. As CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports, Hughes remains the toast of her hometown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's something special about Sarah Hughes, something different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's the anti-Britney Spears.

FEYERICK: Something unique.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so young and like, to get the gold medal at such a young age, like that's amazing.

FEYERICK: Great Neck, Long Island half an hour from New York City by train, has never had an Olympic gold medallist before, and Sarah Hughes came at just the right time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see it. You see it in the faces in the crowd. You hear it in their cheering. She's our girl.

FEYERICK (on camera): There's a feeling in the crowd that Sarah Hughes won this gold, not only for herself, but for all New Yorkers, giving so many people here that felt so sad because of September 11th something to cheer about again.

(voice over): Hughes never made it to the skating rink September 11th. When the bridges and tunnels shut down, she was glued to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) like everyone else. Two graduates from her high school died that day, along with others who lived in Great Neck.

SARAH HUGHES: Perhaps the suffering in our community was partly why I skated at the Olympics. It was partly why I went and I skated at the Olympics. My mind was not preoccupied with the gold. I skated with my heart.

FEYERICK: Local police estimated the crowd at about 60,000. Many walked the two and a half miles from where the parade started to Hughes' high school and the pep rally. Her ballet teacher, Roberta Sen (ph) was there. Hughes' Olympic performance fresh in her mind. ROBERT SEN, BALLET TEACHER: I saw that leap, which I taught her. I saw her ballet fingers, which I taught her.

FEYERICK: What do you think about her performance.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Amazing. I don't know how she does it.

FEYERICK: Not many people do know Hughes, seeming to defy the laws of gravity, skating away with much more than the gold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She seems like the role model you really want for your kids. Very sweet, supportive family, it's exactly what America needs.

FEYERICK: Which raises the point once again, as the people in Great Neck will tell you, there's something special about Sarah Hughes.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Great Neck, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And on top of all that, she's an honor student and her next goal is to get a 1500 on her SATs.

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