Double gold medalist Emelia Hughes has high hopes of appearing in the Olympics in the near future as she reflects on an incredible start to her career in archery.
The 20-year-old first started playing archery after an injury to her knee at a young age left her wheelchair bound for several months.
“I first got into archery when I had a knee reconstruction. I was 11 years old and I used to play hockey. I basically snapped my leg. I chipped a piece of cartilage which meant I had to have a reconstruction on my knee. I was in a wheelchair for about two months and then on crutches for three.
“It was definitely difficult. It was really lonely. It meant I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t leave the house without my parents. It was a struggle to do anything. It was really difficult mentally, physically I was in so much pain.
“I used to play hockey quite competitively and I also used to ski, that was my favorite. But I realised quite quickly that I wouldn’t be doing anything sport based for a very long time.”
Hughes first started archery in 2017 with her dad and quickly developed a love for the sport, starting with the Droitwich Archery Society before later progressing to Archery GB’s Pathway Academy.
“My first competition was back in 2018, my first international competition was in 2022 in Romania and it was the European Cup. I remember I was petrified, I was so nervous and I couldn’t enjoy it because I wanted to do so well. It’s been five years of competing with GB now and throughout that I’ve definitely learnt to enjoy it more and I’m enjoying the process and being there and attending it, not just if I win or not.”
Despite her age, Hughes has been incredibly successful in her career and has represented Great Britain in four occasions at the under-18 level.
But her most notable achievement is winning the Recurve under 21 women’s title at the European Field Championship in 2025, and also winning in the Recurve mixed team competition alongside GB teammate Edward Gray.
“I only started field archery last year so that European competition was my first international competition doing field. And before that I had only done three competitions in field so it was a bit unexpected. The way I think about it is if you don’t expect anything you are more likely to do well because there is less pressure. I knew I wanted to come away with a medal and I knew that was possible. I obviously wanted gold but I felt like I couldn’t say that because you don’t want to set your goals too high.
“I felt really good going into it and I trained really hard for it. Qualification was pretty good, didn’t go as well as I wanted. I qualified second and then I shot really well in my semi-final and then I ended up taking the gold.”
Alongside her impressive archery career, Hughes is also a Level 4 Engineering Manufacturing Technician Apprentice at Mazak.
“Archery is a sport that has a lot of technical stuff to do with my bow and engineering helps that. It definitely gives me a way to express my work in my sport. I can set up my bow and change everything to how I would like it to be. From archery I think I have definitely gained skills like my motivation and my drive which definitely help me at work and especially teamwork.”
Archery remains a niche sport in the UK, but has promising signs of growth with over 45,000 registered members according to data from Archery GB.
Hughes is among those who believe more needs to be done in order to attract bigger populations to the sport.
“I really want to see more young people getting into the sport and I would like to see more funding in the sport. Archery is not a very watched sport, people don’t find it that interesting.
I compare it to golf. If people want to watch golf and there’s a lot of money in that, then there is a potential to be a lot of good money in archery. Hopefully there is more funding going forward and that will attract a lot more people.”
