Salt Lake City ? Sarah Hughes?

That is what the world is asking this morning after the 16-year-old from Great Neck, N.Y., the Olympic figure skater nobody talked about, put in the performance of her life Thursday night and stole the stage and the gold medal from Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen.

Sarah Hughes of the United States waves with the gold medal at the awards ceremony of the women's skating at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Hughes staged a huge upset Thursday night when she stole the gold from U.S. favorite Michelle Kwan and Russian Irina Slutskaya.

Hughes, who entered in fourth place after the short program, had by far the night’s most difficult program, landing seven triples, including two triple-triple combinations the first woman ever to do that. She also had the only clean routine among the top group of skaters.

Slutskaya, who stumbled out of a few jumps and didn’t display her trademark athleticism, won silver.

And Kwan, the graceful favorite, settled for bronze after falling on a triple toe jump and turning in a program less difficult than that of her competitors.

The judges, in more scrutiny than ever after the pairs controversy and Russian allegations Thursday that the Olympics were unfair to Russian athletes, threw resumes out the window and scored on what they saw Thursday night.

And what they saw was a flawless Hughes.

Michelle Kwan of the United States falls during competition in the women's free skating program at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The fall cost Kwan dearly she came into Thursday night leading and wound up taking third place and the bronze medal.

She received five first-place votes to Slutskaya’s four.

As the ordinals were flashed on the scoreboard, Hughes, who was backstage with her coach, Robin Wagner, fell to her knees and yelled, “Oh my God!”

Wagner went berserk.

“You just won the gold medal in the Olympics!” the coach yelled into her pupil’s ear. “Oh my God!”

Slutskaya sobbed nearby while Hughes could not stop laughing.

“I didn’t skate for the gold medal, I just wanted to have fun,” Hughes said. “Heck with it. I was fourth after short. I did all I could. I was in shock. I never skated that well in my whole life. I figured if there was anyplace to do it, this was it.”

Four years after settling for silver after a dazzling performance by 15-year-old teammate Tara Lipinski, Kwan was denied the gold again by a teenage teammate.

“The crowd tried to uplift my spirits after the fall, and I hung in there, but it just wasn’t meant to be tonight,” Kwan said.

Thursday was the glamour night of the Olympics, the night NBC was waiting for, the night a new ice princess would be crowned for a four-year reign. Olympic champions in other sports are often forgotten as soon as the flame is extinguished, but not the women’s figure-skating champion.

Even the most casual Olympic fan could probably rattle off the names of previous ice queens Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Katarina Witt, Kristi Yamaguchi, Oskana Baiul, Tara Lipinski.

So, who would it be this time?

Would it be Kwan, the favorite, the graceful skater with six U.S. titles and four world titles and a world of pressure on her slender shoulders?

Slutskaya, the expressive, entertaining Russian with the huge jumps?

Cohen, the headstrong and balletic 17-year-old, who didn’t seem awed by the competition?

Only those who really knew Hughes figured she had a chance.

As the final group took the ice for warm-ups, and the crowd went wild, it was obvious this was going to be a heck of a show.

Hughes set the tone for the final group of skaters with a near-flawless routine to music by Rachmaninoff. With nothing to lose, Hughes went all-out, nailing four triple jumps in the first minute and a half. By the end of the program, she had landed seven triple jumps, including two triple-triple combinations something no other woman has ever done.

As she slowed down from her final spin, and struck her final pose, a giant smile spread across her face and she shrieked with joy.

The judges were impressed, awarding her mostly 5.8s on both technical and artistic merit.

Cohen skated next and fell on a triple toe jump, ruining her chances.

When Kwan took the ice, she had to know it was her gold to lose. But she looked tight, reducing a triple toe to a double and then falling on the landing of a triple flip.

The crowd’s heart broke with Kwan’s as she fell.

If it seems like Kwan has been around forever, it’s because she has. Remember, it was 13-year-old Kwan who was the substitute on the 1994 U.S. Olympic team in case Tonya Harding was ruled ineligible after being involved in an assault on Nancy Kerrigan.

When Kwan entered the senior level, in 1993, she was a little girl whose parents didn’t allow her to wear makeup. Her programs were lovely, but judges didn’t take her seriously because of her youthful looks. Former coach Frank Carroll, whom Kwan parted with in October, gave her a makeover in 1994 after a battle with her protective parents. Kwan tucked her long ponytail into a bun, wore sparkly makeup, and did a grown-up looking program based on the story of Salome, the harem dancer and seductress.

The program was a huge hit, and Kwan’s career took off.

But one prize eluded her Olympic gold.

Thursday was the night Kwan had been waiting for for four years, since she had to settle for an Olympic silver medal behind spunky U.S. teammate Tara Lipinski at the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. Just like this time, Kwan led after the short program with first-place votes on eight of nine judges’ scorecards.

But she admittedly held back in her long program, leaving room for 15-year-old Lipinski, who skated with verve and fearlessness. Lipinski would take gold and become the youngest Olympic figure skating champion in history.

Kwan was left to second-guess.

And she’s doing the same this morning.