Emily Hughes invited to Olympic warmup event
Photo credit: U.S. Figure Skating | Emily Hughes, shown in 2006, was invited to this week's Skate America international competition.
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Emily Hughes in pictures
Kings Point's Emily Hughes, a 2006 Olympian, has been invited to compete in this week's Skate America international figure skating event in Lake Placid as a replacement for injured '06 silver medalist Sasha Cohen.
Hughes, 20, has missed most of the past two seasons - and both of the last two national championship events - because of injury but decided to take a year away from her studies at Harvard to compete this season, with an eye toward qualifying for her second Olympics.
In 2006, she originally was left off the three-woman Olympic team but was a late replacement when Michelle Kwan could not compete because of a hip injury; Hughes placed seventh.
This season, based on U.S. results in the 2008 world championships, only two berths are open to American women in the singles event. But both Cohen and fellow 2006 Olympian, Kimmie Meissner (knee), have been sidelined by injury this fall.
"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to compete for the fourth time at Skate America," Hughes said in a U.S. Figure Skating Association statement. "It is especially exciting to be representing the United States in my home state of New York and at such an historic Olympic setting as Lake Placid" - which was host city to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Games.
Cohen announced her withdrawal from the event, one of a handful of major competitions leading to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in February, because she continues to battle tendinitis in her right calf. Cohen earlier had pulled out of a previous Grand Prix series event in Paris in mid October.
In a statement released by the USFSA, Cohen said she was advised by her orthopedic surgeon not to compete this week but hopes to be ready for the 2010 national championships, Jan. 14-24, in Spokane, Wash., which serve as the Olympic trials.
