Skating a Thin Line: Emily A. Hughes '11, U.S. Figure Skating Olympian

For most athletes, the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games is the crowning moment of their careers—the stuff of dreams for trainees who spend years toiling on the rinks or fields.

Lifelong figure skater Emily A. Hughes ’11 was no exception: “I don’t think I was really thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to go to the Olympics,’” she says of her time skating in middle and high school. “It was more of a, ‘Oh, I dream to go to the Olympics’—and then when it actually happened, it was just amazing.”

In 2006, Hughes was called to Torino, Italy to compete in the Winter Olympics, where she placed seventh overall. Hughes—then a junior in high school—had previously been named as an alternate for the event after winning the bronze medal at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

With several national championship performances and an Olympic appearance under her belt—not to mention the co-authorship of “I Am a Skater”—Hughes by no means resembles the typical Harvard undergraduate. But for all her athletic accomplishments, she says that skating has not compromised her devotion to education—a decision that she made at an early age.

“I didn’t want to take time off of high school or college just to skate,” says Hughes, now a junior at Harvard. “Having that balance, I think, made skating better for me and made school better for me, because it wasn’t just all skating or all school.”

ROAD TO 2010

Despite her desire to strike the perfect balance between school and skating, Hughes decided to take a leave of absence from Harvard last semester to train to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She knew she needed to dedicate more time to skating to compete at the Olympic level again, Hughes says.

“I either had to take some time off of school and compete, or not compete and go to school,” she says. “I think that was one of the first times that it was either-or.”

Indeed, prior to her decision to leave Harvard, Hughes had made consistent efforts to perform her duties as a student and an athlete without sacrificing either—a balancing act that most Olympic-level skaters do not even attempt, she says.

“I think that a lot of people questioned it, but I never did,” Hughes says. “I’ve always seen myself going to college, so that was never an option. Harvard is just a great place, so trying to balance the two made sense to me.”

During her freshman and sophomore years, Hughes scheduled her classes in the morning or afternoon to make time for training sessions at a rink in Acton, Mass. and the Skating Club of Boston. Hughes skated a few hours each day, worked regularly with a trainer, and exercised multiple days a week on her own, supplementing her training with Pilates and yoga, according to Elin G. Schran, Hughes’ Boston-based coach.

“Usually, people who are skating at her level eat, breathe, and sleep their sport,” Schran says. “For her to be getting off the ice and have to go to class was crazy—it’s completely unheard of.”

And Hughes’s skating commitments often went beyond the extracurricular involvements of even the most dedicated of her classmates at Harvard, according to Dean of Freshman Thomas A. Dingman ‘67, Hughes’ freshman advisor.

“There are all sorts of stars in the class, people who are doing things on a regional or a national or an international level,” he said. “The skating regimen is pretty relentless...I think what was required of her was pretty unusual.”

But Hughes could not let the possibility of participating in the 2010 Winter Olympics slip past her. Blockmate Claire M Wheeler ’11 remembers sitting with Hughes on their futon in Mather at 3:30 in the morning last March, when the skater was deciding whether she should give the Olympics one more try.

“It was a very difficult decision for her...It’s good that she gave it one last hurrah to see if she could do it,” Wheeler says. “If she did make the Olympics, we wanted to get a Winnebago and go up to Vancouver.”

With her heart set on competing in the Olympics for the second time, Hughes returned home to New York to train with her long-time coach Bonni Retzkin. She practiced intensively throughout the summer and the fall semester.

“I missed pretty much two years of competing while being here [at Harvard] and had to get back to where I was before,” Hughes says. “I spent a lot more time on the ice than I have in the past.”

Hughes qualified for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January, where she placed ninth overall, but did not qualify for the Olympic team.

“It was definitely an experience that I would have done again if I had the chance,” Hughes says of her semester off.

THE HARVARD OLYMPIAN

The ice rink has long been an alternate home for two of Hughes’ family members: her father played ice hockey as an undergraduate at Cornell, and her older sister—the 24-year-old Sarah Hughes—won a gold medal in figure skating at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“I think it’s inevitable to compare us,” Emily muses about her famous sister. “But what’s really bad about being compared to an Olympic gold medalist?”

Hughes’s love affair with skating began at the age of three, when her mother would take her out to the rink with her older siblings. Soon enough, her bouts on the rink evolved into a passion for figure skating, and in the 2004 to 2005 season, Hughes began to compete at the senior national level.

“I love competition and the rush that you get when you’re out there,” Hughes says. “I love the freedom...when you’re just skating on the ice.”

After winning the bronze medal at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Hughes was named the first alternate for the 2006 Winter Olympics. But when Michelle Kwan withdrew due to a hip injury, Hughes—then a junior in high school—found herself flying to Torino on short notice to compete in the Olympics.

“I remember the first time I skated over the Olympic rings,” Hughes says. “I don’t think that practice went so well because I was just in awe of everything.”

As her family cheered from the stands, Hughes was overwhelmed with the commission of representing her country and the reality of competing before an audience of unprecedented size, she says.

“The crowd was behind me, and when they start getting loud, it definitely gets you through that four minutes a lot more easily,” Hughes says.

Though she could not participate in the opening ceremonies, Hughes says that one of her favorite memories from her Olympic experience was walking with Team U.S.A. in the closing ceremonies.

“It was just a whirlwind. It was insane,” Hughes says of her Torino experience. “There’s nothing else like it.”

NOT JUST ALL SPORT

Coming off of her Olympic debut and an eighth place finish at the 2006 World Figure Skating Championships, Hughes went through yet another grueling test of her abilities—the college application process.

Her two older sisters both tried their hands at convincing Hughes of applying to their respective alma maters, Harvard and Yale. But one college stood above the rest.

“When I came to visit here, it was just an amazing place,” Hughes says of Harvard. “I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.”

Freshman year was “really funny,” Hughes recalls. Though many of her classmates at Harvard heard that there was a former Olympian among them, they did not know that the rumored individual was actually her. Since then, Hughes has emerged from obscurity as a stunningly accomplished athlete who is grounded in her life as a Harvard student.

Hughes has been an active member of the Harvard University Figure Skating Club, where she is seen as a “role model,” according to Club Co-President Kristina A. Nolte ’10.

“She’s really down to earth and into giving people tips,” Nolte says of the former Olympian. “She’s really friendly and approachable on the ice.”

Hughes has also found a strong athletic community at Harvard, including her roommates in Mather House. Hughes’ blockmate Jacqueline M. Alemany ’11, a basketball player, says that their shared athletic interests have helped them become closer friends.

“Athlete to athlete, it’s easier to understand where someone’s coming from, even if you don’t know the sport,” Alemany says.

But for all the rigors of the sport and the added stress of balancing her schoolwork, Hughes—whose favorite Harvard-related memory is attending the Harvard-Yale football game freshman year—knows how to make time for her more social extracurricular activities.

“My favorite times with her are staying up really late at night and realizing that you have a huge load of work to do,” says Wheeler, Hughes’ blockmate. “She will make sure we have all the snacks ready, and we probably talk more than we should.”

BACK TO CAMBRIDGE

Hughes returned to Harvard for the spring semester, resuming her dual dedication to school and skating.

“Being back here is nice. It’s kind of like a home away from home,” Hughes says. “I was actually really excited to go back to class, which might seem kind of odd.”

Hughes, a sociology concentrator with a secondary field in government, says that her future plans remain uncertain and that she continues to hone her intellectual interests. Hughes, who has been attending events at the Institute of Politics, says she wishes to increase her involvement on campus.

Hughes continues to participate in the Harvard Figure Skating Club, and she has even watched some of the Vancouver Games’ figure skating competitions with its club members. This spring, Hughes will perform at the 40th anniversary “Evening With Champions,” an annual performance that benefits the Harvard-affiliate Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“I’m still skating a little bit, trying to get everything with school settled,” Hughes says. “And then I’ll skate a little bit more.”

—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.