Abby Hughes came to ski jumping at the age of seven through her three years older brother Blake Hughes , who jumped in the Ski Jumping Continental Cup from 2002 . After joining the National Sports Foundation , she jumped in the Ladies Continental Cup for the first time on July 23, 2004. In her first competition in Park City , she was twelfth. From August 7, 2005, she was part of the permanent US squad. She was able to show good results from the start and regularly jumped into the top ten in the first competitions. On October 1, 2005 she was able to jump on the podium for the first time with second place in Park City and only had to admit defeat to her teammate Lindsey Van .
Hughes jumped to eighth place at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Kranj . Hughes finished the 2005/06 Continental Cup season in ninth place and thus for the first and only time in the top ten so far in her career. A year later she was able to reach 18th place at the 2007 Junior World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy . At the Junior World Championships in 2009 in Štrbské Pleso , she was eighth.
In February 2011 Hughes first took part in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo . She took 24th place in the individual competition. From the 2011/12 season, Hughes started in the newly introduced women's ski jumping World Cup . It made its debut at the World Cup premiere on December 3, 2011 in Lillehammer . She finished 21st and thus got her first World Cup points. She achieved her best position of the season on February 4, 2012 in Hinzenbach in twelfth place. In the overall World Cup, she finished 25th.
In summer 2012 she started in the newly introduced Summer Grand Prix for women. She made her debut on August 15, 2012 in Courchevel , where she finished eleventh. In the 2012/13 World Cup season , she improved her best World Cup placement with a ninth place on December 9, 2012 in Sochi . At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme she finished 33rd in the individual. In the overall World Cup of the 2012/13 season, she finished 21st with 160 points and thus achieved her best career result. In the following 2013/14 season she did not get beyond 21st place in the individual competitions and was only 53rd in the overall World Cup. In the following years, too, she did not come close to her best season 2012/13. In the 2014/15 to 2017/18 seasons from 2014/15 to 2017/18 she only reached the top 20 times in the World Cup. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun she finished 34th in the individual. At the US Championships in the same year she reached third place on the large hill and second place on the normal hill.
United States
