Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The younger sister of the 2002 champion received a late invite to Turin.
NEWSDAY
SYOSSET, N.Y. -- She whirled across the ice in a blue-and-black warm-up outfit, spinning airborne with a fluid and sure landing. The smile never left, even as her skates scraped to a halt near the rink door, where a reporter met her in the midst of her personal tranquility.
Like thousands of kids in the New York area, Emily Hughes didn't have school Monday.
"Yeah," she said, "nice snow day."
But for this Great Neck North High School junior, who had her mind set on an SAT prep course this weekend, life has taken a dramatic turn since the call came from Turin for a late invitation to the Winter Olympics.
As she pulled off her black gloves and unlaced her skates, Hughes considered the suddenness of her celebrity and the whirlwind adventure it has set her on.
"You know, I'm one of six," said Emily, the youngest of them all, including her sister, Sarah, who won the gold medal in 2002 in Salt Lake City. "There's always some craziness going on. This is a little more craziness, but there's definitely a different feeling now, with people outside wanting to take my picture. Usually, they're waiting for Sarah."
Sarah, a student at Yale, was still in demand, but this time for different reasons. While Emily skated on the Islanders' practice rink at Iceworks in Syosset, behind glass doors that were covered with black garbage bags, Sarah was on a large, flat screen television above those doors, talking about her sister in an interview on MSNBC.
Media frenzy
What would have been a quiet afternoon at the rink turned into a media frenzy. Photographers were sneaking around the rink, trying to get a glimpse of the 17-year-old skater, who spent an hour with her coach, Bonni Retzkin.
Four Nassau County police officers guarded each entrance to the rink. Emily chose Iceworks, which is owned by Islanders Owner Charles Wang, because "they've been really accommodating for me, even before anything happened," and "the ice is really good."
With a whole clean sheet of the really good ice to herself and protected by the cocoon of security, Emily "had a great session," Retzkin said.
"I was really impressed with the way she handled herself on the ice ... I was thrilled with how she skated today. I think she's good to go."
It was the first time Hughes has skated since she got word that she would be replacing Michelle Kwan, who withdrew from the Olympics on Sunday.
Hughes finished third at the U.S. nationals, but was relegated to alternate when Kwan was given a spot on the U.S. team via an injury waiver.