Emily Hughes showed great promise as an Olympic figure skater, but retired young to pursue the possibilities of a career in business. Hughes began training early and published a children’s book, I Am a Skater, in 2002, the year her older sister Sarah won an Olympic gold medal. Emily Hughes earned a bronze medal of her own at the 2005 World Junior Figure Skating Championships. Later that year, after recovering from a bout of viral meningitis, she competed at the Grand Prix, placing fourth. She was a member of the 2006 Olympic skating team and was the 2007 US National silver medalist. Despite injuries and a full course load at Harvard, she continued to compete in national and international championships, but retired from competition in 2010. She graduated from Harvard in 2011 with a sociology degree and began a legislative internship with the US Senate. After a brief stint as a business analyst with Deloitte Consulting, she announced that she would begin working for Google in 2015.