Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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Sarah Hughes ’09

She was an Olympic gold medalist at age 16; the subject of at least four biographies (variously dubbing her a “Golden Girl,” “America’s Sweetheart,” and “Sudden Champion”) before her 18th birthday; and a “Stars on Ice” headliner while still a Yale undergraduate. Now Sarah Hughes ’09 is also a member of the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame. (The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame beat the skaters to the punch, inducting Hughes in 2005.) An American studies major, Hughes has “dabbled” in skating exhibitions since graduation, and she told People magazine last spring that she plans to “go to law school in three years.” In the meantime, she put her concentration in US politics to use in October, writing an article for CNN defending President Barack Obama’s trip to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago as a site for the 2016 Olympics.

Some things run in the Hughes family. Sarah’s younger sister Emily is right now competing in the US Figure Skating Championships and hoping for a spot in next month’s Olympics. The big sister—who picked Yale over Harvard—evidently holds less influence when it comes to educational choices, however: Emily goes to Harvard.

Filed under alumnae, Olympics
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