CHRISSY HUGHES: In her own words

(September 2007 | Photo by Kathleen Harmon)

Chrissy Hughes, age 17, won the gold medal at the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) competition in Miercurea Ciuc, Romania, September 6-9, 2007. This past January, she placed 6th in the Junior Ladies event at the 2007 U.S. National Championships in her home state of Washington and, six weeks later, won the bronze medal in her junior international debut for the USA in the Netherlands. Her 2007-08 program music, both junior and senior versions, is "Hymn to Hope" by Secret Garden (short program) and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major Op. 35 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (free skate). Darin Hosier is her coach and Corrie Martin is her choreographer. Chrissy answered a series of questions via e-mail for WorldWideIce.com in the weeks before leaving for her second JGP competition, which takes place October 4-7 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

PART I.

Going to Romania was so exciting. It was only the second time I have ever been out of the United States (except for Canada). My first time was in March [2007] when I went to The Hague, The Netherlands for a smaller international competition. I am not used to the long travel days. I had heard the Romania JGP is one of the worst because of the long bus ride that follows the long plane rides! The bus ride was almost five hours long. [Before I left home,] I was hearing different things from people that had been to the Romania JGP in the past. I had heard as little as 3 hours and as long as 7. After the long flights from Seattle to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Bucharest, I was SO thankful that it wasn't 7 hours!! We had to travel up and down a few mountains with a bunch of switchbacks. I slept for the majority of the bus ride, so I missed a good opportunity to see the country. The people of Romania were very friendly. Most of the people in the town we were in were Hungarian. They were very patient with my coach and me when we were learning how to say hello and thank you!

Going into the competition, I was working really hard because I didn't have much time to prepare. I was off the ice in May/June because of a right shin injury. My evaluation didn't go as well as I had wanted, so I knew I had a lot to prove. When I was evaluated at the Silicon Valley Open competition [August 8-11, 2007], I had to do a more simple version of my long program. Because I had already tested into senior, I was obligated to skate in that group, rather than junior. I had a few deductions since the junior and senior] levels have different requirements.

I had no idea what the competition in Romania would be like. My goal was to skate well enough so that I would place high enough to get another JGP invitation. I had never thought about winning. That thought NEVER crossed my mind. After I skated my long program, my coach and I were sitting in the kiss and cry area. He was telling me that my skate should be enough to keep me in the top three, but no matter how I ended up I had to be proud of myself and how far I had come in the short amount of time I had to prepare. When he was in the middle of saying that, my scores popped up and we saw that I was in first. Since I skated last, we knew that I would stay in first and I had won my first JGP(see above photo of the winning moment in Romania). I was so shocked. So many things started entering my mind.

[For example,] right when the results came up, I knew I needed an encore performance. We had prepared an exhibition program, but the champion was required to have an encore performance ready. We hadn't prepared an encore piece, and had to scramble to get one ready. The music I skated to for my exhibition was "Breathe" by Faith Hill. For my encore, I was allowed to do a small piece of my short program.

The best part of seeing my name at the top of the results list was the thought that I would probably be invited to compete in another JGP competition. I remembered that the winner was also required to be tested for drugs. Immediately, someone from the Anti-Doping room came to my side and had to follow me around everywhere I went until after I had been tested. That was something I had never done before!! The drug testing took about a half hour. The people that were conducting the testing were very strict [and] had to follow certain protocols.

Now that I have been back home a few weeks, everyone has been so supportive. I missed the first few days of school while I was away, and my teachers have been SO supportive. My psychology teacher even printed out the results and posted them on her door! Students all around school have been congratulating me! Usually when I return from a competition, none of the students are aware, but this time they are! Now I am back at the ice rink, preparing for my trip to Bulgaria!!



PART II.

Chrissy is short for Christina. Nobody has ever called me Christina, but that is the name I am registered for pretty much everything except for skating!

People ask me all the time if I am related to Sarah or Emily Hughes. I was asked this question A LOT during and around the time Sarah won the Olympics. I just say no, but that would be really neat, except that the Hughes family lives on the other side of the country.

My sister's name is Maddie Hughes and she is 15 years old. My brother's name is Garrett Hughes and he is 12 years old. They both play soccer and my brother is really into baseball. They don't really take much interest in my skating career, but they do believe it is a "real sport." They would love for me to mention their names publicly. Everytime I have an interview, they always beg me to talk about them in hopes that their names will be printed in a newspaper!

I attend Liberty High School. It is a public school. The schedule is odd compared to other schools. Each student has the opportunity to take eight classes. We have "A" Days and "B" Days. On A days, students attend classes 1-4 and on B days 5-8. The classes are an hour and a half long. For the past 3 years, I have only had six classes--3 per day. I had late arrival. For my senior year, I am also attending a community college. I am in a program called Running Start where students take classes at the college and earn dual high school and college credit. I split my time between the two schools. I would like to attend college next year. I do want to continue to skate in this area, so I will apply to some schools in the Seattle area.

I first started learning American Sign Language (ASL) at my high school, but the teacher stopped working and the school district could not find a replacement. I decided to take the class at the community college through the Running Start program because I wanted to continue learning the language. Through my ASL classes, I have become really interested in the Deaf culture and I would like to help bridge the communication barrier between the hearing and Deaf.

I have been working with Darin Hosier for about 5 years and I have been taking lessons from Corrie Martin for 7 years. I LOVE working with my coaches. They are so great and pay attention to every detail to make sure that their students are becoming the best skaters they can be. Darin has really helped me technically, especially learning all the rules of the new judging system. Corrie has been great in adapting to the IJS [International Judging System]. She has been able to incorporate the guidelines, but still keep her style and creativity involved in all of the programs she choreographs.

I listed landing my double axel as my biggest life defining moment [in my USFS athlete biography] because I worked so long to land the jump. It took several years for me to master my double axel and once I finally did, it took my skating career to the next level.

Yes, the triple loop is a new element for me this year. I have not been able to practice the [triple] flip and lutz because of my injury. I am just trying to stay healthy and keep my shin from acting up again.

I am not making any significant [program] changes for Bulgaria.

Yes, I am still planning on competing in the NWP Regionals [October 16-20, 2007, in Mountlake Terrace, WA]. I declined the bye because I want to have the opportunity to compete in Senior before Pacific Coast [Sectionals]. I did skate senior in the Silicon Valley competition during the summer, but I skated my junior programs there because of my upcoming JGP in Romania.

October 5, 2007 update: Chrissy Hughes won the JGP gold medal in Sofia, Bulgaria, and has qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final to be held in Gdansk, Poland, December 6-9, 2007. Stay tuned for more updates from Chrissy in the weeks ahead!