"I started skating because of my sister and brothers," Hughes said, and then she added the important part. "I just loved it, so I kept going with it."
Make no mistake, it was her choice. And although she is, perhaps, still known as much for being the younger sister of 2002 Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes, Emily Hughes has been climbing steadily through the ranks of U.S. female figure skaters.
"It's mainly the competition and the adrenaline rush that you get," Hughes said. "And then doing that perfect program and getting the response from the crowd -- it's just amazing."
She will be among the favorites to win a medal in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 8-15 at Savvis Center. The event is the most important factor in selecting the U.S. Olympic team, which will be announced after the competition.
"Everyone compares me to Sarah," Hughes said. "She's my sister; it's sort of an inevitable comparison. But it's not bad being compared to the Olympic gold medalist."
Like Sarah, Emily has continued to live at home and attend public school at Great Neck North High School on Long Island. Most elite skaters leave home for a training center, but that never was a consideration for the Hughes family.
"There's no model here for anybody," said her father, John. "In our circumstances, such that we have six kids, who was going with her? There wasn't any real decision, and we love having her at home. She's got great spirit, and she's really got a lot of life, so she livens up the house and we're happy to have her."
Also like her big sister, Emily has stayed loyal to her first coach, Bonni Retzkin, whom she met when she was 4.
"She had a lot of personality, and she really wanted to skate," Retzkin said. "I just remember her mom always telling me that, and we always had fun."
Emily first qualified for nationals in 2002, the same year her sister won the Olympic gold. She finished fourth at the Eastern sectional, earning the competition's last berth to nationals, and placed 11th in the junior competition there.
She followed with the same placement at the 2003 nationals, and she just missed qualifying for nationals the next season, finishing fifth at sectionals. But in 2005, she moved up to senior and drastically improved her placement, finishing sixth at nationals in her first time at the senior level.
She then followed by winning the bronze medal at the world junior championships. That success, coming so close to an Olympic year, has resulted in more comparisons to her big sister.
Emily is already practiced at fielding the questions. She smiles as she lists the differences between her and Sarah -- they jump in different directions -- and is happy to acknowledge similarities, too, such as their love of skating and family.
"I think we're very different people," she said. "I guess we portray different things on the ice. Our personalities are really different off the ice. Basically, everyone in my family is different, so I guess that's why we all get along so well."
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Ticket information
Tickets for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships are available for all events at all price levels.
Executive director Doug Zeghibe has said ticket sales are proceeding at a rate similar to the last time the national championships occurred during an Olympic year. The 2002 nationals in Los Angeles set an attendance record with 125,345 fans over the course of the week.
Anyone who has purchased tickets should be aware that the schedule was revised in mid-December to accommodate skaters who had qualified in more than one event. The new schedule is available at www.stlouis2006.com.
