Sarah Hughes

I wear my Peggy Fleming T-shirt when I go to sleep every night before I compete, and for the past four years, it's brought me incredible good luck.

It was a dream of mine to be an Olympic champion but not a lifelong goal.

It's really ironic that I won, because that's not the goal that I had in mind when I went out to skate.

Katarina Witt. She was the ultimate competitor. She would just stare down people before competition. She was relentless on the ice.

I didn't hold back.

I started skating because I loved it. I started when I was three and I didn't know all the sacrifices and all the hardships and how difficult day-in and day-out it would be.

I liked being active. I liked being creative.

I just skated for the fun of it.

I could have been known for something terrible.

When I started my program... there was a big clock in the corner and I looked and it said nine o'clock exactly. And it was funny, because when I was standing on the podium, it said exactly 10 p.m., and this whole hour had changed my life.

I think what every skater dreams of is not only skating the best program they can possibly skate, but, y'know, having the crowd roar at the end, and it was just so loud I couldn't even hear my music.

When I was skating I felt I represented not just my family and the people who helped me make it to that point, but also New York and the country.