Salt Lake City Olympian Sarah Hughes has applied to run for the House of Representatives US Congress in one of the districts of New York. The chances of the 38-year-old ex-figure skater are highly regarded, although Hughes has yet to go through the primaries. Republican Anthony D'Esposito won the previous election in this district. Democrats are going to return a seat in Congress, emphasizing that the current deputy represents the extremist wing of the Republican Party.
New York Democratic leader Jay Jacobs sees Hughes as a very strong candidate. True, many political experts doubt this. Their main argument is that even though Hughes won the gold medal 21 years ago, she must explain why she is going to run in a district where she has never lived. 15 percent ahead of Donald Trump. In addition, Hughes will certainly support the Jewish lobby, which is influential in US political life. In New York, his position is especially strong.
The father of the Olympic champion is Canadian with Irish roots. He was the captain of the Cornell University hockey team. Her mother Amy Pasternak is Jewish. Sarah herself indicates Judaism as a religious denomination. In 2005, she was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Israel. It includes representatives of different countries with Jewish roots. Well-known figure skaters include American Sasha Cohen, Canadians Helen and Petra Burka, Frenchman Alain Kalmat, as well as Gennady Karponosov, Ilya Averbukh and Irina Slutskaya.
In 2002, Slutskaya, who became the silver medalist of the Olympics, could not resist a caustic remark: “It would not be a shame to lose to Michelle Kwan, we suffered the Olympic gold with her. We know what this piece of gilded metal is worth. The upstart Hughes doesn't even understand the price of his victory.Of course, resentment spoke in Irina, but in some ways she was right. Hughes was considered the third number in the American team, and almost no one bet on her victory in Salt Lake City. Everyone was waiting for the triumph of the four-time world champion Kwan, who won the short program, Cohen was third after the first competitive day, and Hughes, who had previously competed in three adult world championships thanks to her success in juniors, but did not rise above third place, remained fourth.
Hughes only monetized her Olympic gold medal in a different way. She entered the prestigious Yale University (Nathan Chen is currently studying there) with a degree in American Public Policy and received a bachelor's degree. She worked as a lawyer in New York, actively participated in various charitable projects. Together with UN Secretary General Park Ki-moon, she implemented a program to promote the role of sports and athletes in strengthening intercultural understanding and peace, and represented the Let's Move movement, led by Michelle Obama. In 2018, Hughes was a member of the US Olympic delegation in Pyeongchang.
Not satisfied with her education at Yale, Hughes studied at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Niagara University. In a word, by the age of 38, the Olympic champion has achieved a lot in her career. Well, what about in your personal life?This question was asked by many American tabloids covering the marriage of Emily Hughes, Sarah's younger sister. She is also a figure skater, participated in the Olympics in Turin. Six years ago, Emily married Amit Mukherjee, ahead of Sarah in this regard. Of the dozen American biographical sites that have everything and more about local stars, only one mentions that the Salt Lake City Olympic champion is single, but adheres to the traditional orientation.
The current politician carefully hides his personal life, but he failed to keep silent about one novel. After all, Hughes met with Andrew Giuliani, the son of the former mayor of New York and adviser to Donald Trump. Giuliani Jr. ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary last year. He claims to have remained on friendly terms with Hughes.
«
«Sarah is a wonderful person,» Giuliani was quoted as saying by the American newspaper The Post. «Despite the political differences that we have, her heart is in the right place. She cares about New York.»
br>One of the manifestations of such care can be considered a program to develop figure skating among the children of Harlem, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York. It is inhabited by African Americans. Thanks to the efforts of Hughes, the girls, who dream of repeating her Olympic success, were provided with teaching aids and equipment. Hughes' attitude to the most important LGBT agenda for the American society could not be found in the press. Although party discipline is also party discipline in the US.
It is curious that all three Salt Lake City medalists in women's competitions did not become coaches, but made steps into politics. Kwan, having worked at the campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton (Hughes also worked there), at the end of 2021 was appointed to the post of US Ambassador to Belize. Irina Slutskaya was the ambassador of the Sochi Olympics, and in 2016 she was elected to the Moscow Regional Duma. True, she worked in the parliament of the Moscow Region for only one convocation.