Who do CEOs look up to?

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, admires 2002 Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes. The figure skater was an underdog who landed on top because everyone who was favored messed up.

Meanwhile, Hughes performed a near-perfect routine. Mayer thinks of her role at Yahoo that way.

“No one thought Sarah Hughes had a chance to win,” Mayer tells Bloomberg Businessweek. “Afterward, Hughes said that she didn’t quite know how she had done it and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to repeat it. It was the routine of her life…I feel like Sarah Hughes. Actually, I still have her performance saved on my TiVo.”

Here’s the inspiring performance from the Salt Lake City, Utah 2002 Olympics:

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