In 1998, Sargeant/Wirtz won their first national title and were sent to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. They had a very disappointing Olympics, placing 12th after many problems, but came back and were the only pair in the entire event to skate two clean programs at the 1998 World Championships, and were robbed of at least the silver medal, placing a disgraceful seventh. The pair became national champions for the second time in 1999, where they had been widely expected to lose to the rising stars Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who had posted better results on the grand prix circuit. They had their best chance ever to medal at worlds that year, placing fourth after the short program, but two minor mistakes in the long dropped them to sixth, while the Polish bronze medallists had two major errors which would have left the door wide open for them had they skated cleanly.