Sudden Champion: The Sarah Hughes Story

by Richard Krawiec

Recounts the life and figure skating career of the sixteen-year-old girl who won the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Richard Krawiec has published two novels, *Time Sharing* and *Faith in What?,* a story collection, *And Fools of God*, two books of poetry, *She Hands Me the Razor* and *Breakdown*, four plays, two young adult biographies, and book reviews and feature articles for national publications. *Time Sharing* was a *Publisher's Weekly Recommended* selection, and made the*Village Voice Real Life Rock Top Ten*.*She Hands Me the Razor* was one of only 17 poetry books nominated for a 2012 SIBA Award. *Yao Ming: Gentle Giant* was cited as one of the Best Young Adult Books of the Year by the Pennsylvania Libraries Association.

Krawiec has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the NC Arts Council(twice) and Pennsylvania Council on the arts. His work appears in *Shenandoah, sou'wester, Witness, Cream City Review, Florida Review, West Branch, NC Literary Review, 2Rivers View, Connotation*, and dozens of other literary magazines. He has edited anthologies featuring the work of Dorianne Laux, Marge Piercy, Reynolds Price, Lee Smith, Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Spencer, Fred Chappell, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Joe Millar, Michael Chitwood, Jaki Shelton Green and others.

He teaches Beginning Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing online for UNC Chapel Hill, for which he wrote the curriculum and won their Excellence in Teaching Award. As founder of Jacar Press,a Community Active Press, he
publishes books of poetry. He has worked extensively with people in homeless shelters, abused women and children, literacy students, prisoners, immigrants, and others who have been traditionally excluded from literary programming.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This little biography is intended for juvenile readers and is written as such. The book would probably serve the purpose of a child writing a report on an Olympic champion. It gives basic information and little else. The biography was probably written based on the public record. The author made numerous mistakes leading me to believe he knows little about skating. Otherwise he would not describe a skating skill as a "twirl", a term not used in the figure skating world. He also referred to the Olympic Games as the "International Olympics" . No one would use this title other than a person who really doesn't know what he's talking about.
There are no personal insights into Sarah Hughes as an individual. No author's note discusses the source of the information. The author does not include a list of references or bibliography; although, appendices outline Hughes accomplishments and a glossary of skating terminology.
Personally I can hardly believe it's already been 18 years since this young woman won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating.