Sarah Hughes, the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic women's figure skating champion, plans to run for Congress in a New York seat ©Getty Images

Sarah Hughes, who won figure skating gold for the United States at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics, is running for Congress.

Hughes, 38, intends to run as a Democrat to represent New York's Long Island in the fourth congressional district in the House of Representatives.

She will be challenging for the seat currently held by Republican Anthony D'Esposito.

Her campaign spokesman told Newsday: "Born and raised on Long Island, Sarah is concerned about where we're headed, whether it's rising prices, public safety and gun violence, or threats to women's health.

"She's putting the pieces into place to make an announcement in the next few weeks."

Hughes was a surprise winner of the women's figure skating competition at Salt Lake City 2002.

Sarah Hughes intends to run as a Democrat to represent New York's Long Island in the fourth congressional district ©Getty Images
Sarah Hughes intends to run as a Democrat to represent New York's Long Island in the fourth congressional district ©Getty Images

Fourth after the short programme, she produced a dazzling free skate that took her past eventual silver and bronze medallists, favourites Irina Slutskaya of Russia and her compatriot Michelle Kwan.

Kwan was the Nagano 1998 Olympic silver medallist who had by then won four of her five world titles.

After retiring from competition, Hughes attended Yale as an undergraduate and Penn for law school.

According to her LinkedIn bio, she's worked as an associate at a New York law firm and is currently studying at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The fourth district is next to Hughes' hometown of Great Neck, which is in New York's third congressional district and currently represented by Republican George Santos.

He was charged last week with federal counts of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.