Packing his suitcase a fortnight before the rugby sevens kicks off at the Paris Olympics, square-jawed, clean-cut USA Eagle Madison Hughes is the picture of All-American good looks, while sounding every inch the courteous English gent.
Getting ready to join his teammates, he tells me about his third and final tilt at an Olympic medal, which will come on the heels of finishing his MBA at Stanford University, and just before his wedding in September.
Born and raised in Britain to an English father and an American mother, Hughes developed his game at historic public school Wellington College, which has produced a slew of world-class English rugby players.
And then he’d leave to spend summers at his grandmother’s lake house in Massachusetts with a gang of cool, older American cousins, “who I really looked up to and wanted to be like. The image I liked to have in my head was of being an American.”
Back in Britain for school, national and county trials were a regular thing, as well as a place in the London Irish Academy. Hughes remembers a ‘terrible day’ at the Divisional Two festival: “I touched the ball once in the whole game. I didn’t get picked, so that felt like it was kind of that.”
But that, it turned out, was very much not that.
“I was playing for South West England Under 16s against a US University sevens team. After the game I went up to the coach and said, ‘Hey – I’m American-qualified…’”
Next thing he knows, Hughes was invited to a high school camp in America, and afterwards flown out to represent the USA Under 20s at the World Rugby Trophy Competition in Tbilisi, Georgia. Aged 17, still in the Lower Sixth at Wellington, it was clear to Hughes the door to America had opened.
A-Levels done and school over, he accepted a place at Ivy League Dartmouth College, for whom he played rugby impressively enough to find himself invited to the USA Rugby training camp in his freshman year.
Hopping back and forth between college in New Hampshire and training camp in San Diego – “there probably aren’t two harder places to go back and forth between in the US!” – a professional contract with USA Rugby was in the offing. In February 2014, Hughes flew with the squad to Wellington, New Zealand, to make his debut on the World Series.
“It all happened crazy quick. I got only 30 seconds off the bench in my first game, and by my third game I was starting.
“Then we went to Hong Kong and Tokyo for the next two rounds, which was amazing. We made the quarter-finals at both, but I knew I couldn’t play the next two tournaments as I had to go back to college.
Maddy is special. He may have this million-dollar smile, but once he gets between those white lines he’s a fierce competitor
“I remember thinking, ‘someone else will come in now, and who knows if I’ll ever get to do this again’. I remember telling myself, walking off the field in Hong Kong, ‘just make sure you take this all in and really appreciate it!’.”
Committed to his degree, Hughes returned to the East Coast, knuckled down to his studies at Dartmouth, and was expecting this to be the way of things.
But just as he was settling into the library routine, the phone rang with something of an SOS: the team had picked up injuries at the Glasgow Sevens – could he please come and play for the Eagles in London, next weekend?
Carefully-crafted, scrupulously apologetic, beseeching emails to the faculty were dispatched. In reply: “I got a long email back from some scary professors saying that I needed to really 100 percent focus on my studies. And then the email ended: ‘BUT GO PLAY RUGBY!’.”
Did he ever.
Having made his debut a few months before, in just his second season with the USA Eagles, aged 21 and the youngest and least experienced player on the roster, Hughes was offered the captaincy. Like any young captain he would need to earn the respect of the senior players around him.
“Folau [Niua] was the most intimidating,” says Hughes with a smile. “He was already a legend of the team. His rugby knowledge is so high, he understands the game so well and I was pretty concerned about keeping on his good side. Before you get to know him he can be a little gruff. And so I was like, ‘does this guy, like, respect me at all?’.”
Respect was not far off. Later that season, Hughes led the Eagles to victory over Fiji for the first time, and in the final event of the year in London, to their maiden title on the World Series.
“I’d gone to the London Sevens as a kid. I remember standing on the side and getting the players’ autographs. I had lots of family and friends there. For our first title to be in London, where I grew up, it was extra, extra special.”
A heart-breaking five-point loss to Great Britain in the last-eight knockout round meant the USA again missed a chance at a coveted Olympic medal. Madison Hughes was worn out.
In 2016 sevens made its debut at the Olympics. Still just 23 years old, Hughes took the USA men’s team onto the field in Rio, captaining not only Folau Niua but other rugby personalities, such as Saracens Premiership star Chris Wyles, New England Patriot Superbowl winner Nate Ebner, and his predecessor as USA captain, Zack Test.
Test has this to say of Hughes: “Maddy is special. He may have this million-dollar smile, but once he gets between those white lines he’s a fierce competitor. A few words from Maddy, a distinct look with those eyes, and you knew what you had to do. I knew he had what was needed to take the team forward.”
Ultimately, Team USA would miss out on a medal in Rio: coming within five agonising points of eventual gold medallists Fiji, the Eagles ended up finishing ninth. The Covid Olympics were next in Tokyo – and a heart-breaking five-point loss to Great Britain in the last-eight knockout round meant the USA again missed a chance at a coveted Olympic medal.
Madison Hughes was worn out.
“I’d been fully involved in the programme for seven or eight years by then, and Covid was an emotionally fraught time. I felt like like SpiderMan holding up a bridge, trying to hold all these pieces together.
“I also felt that there were a number of younger guys on the team who were comfortable with me leading, and had become too comfortable in their roles. In order for the team to really progress some new voices would be a good thing. So, for both personal and team reasons, I felt like it was a good time to step away.”
So, Hughes hung up his boots and moved to California to start an MBA at Stanford, and, not coincidentally, to join another Stanford student called Dawn, who was then studying for a PhD in neuroscience – and who, in September, will become his wife.
When I was commentating on games and talking to the coaches, talking to players, I had this feeling that I’m still capable of doing this, and realised I still wanted to do it
For the best part of two years Hughes hit the books and spent time with his fiancée, watching sevens rugby on TV and feeling he, ‘could cheer on the guys dispassionately’.
But a stint as a commentator on the World Series brought it all back: “When I was commentating on games and talking to the coaches, talking to players, I had this feeling that I’m still capable of doing this, and realised I still wanted to do it.”
At the HSBC SVNS 2024 Series opener in Dubai last December, almost two-and-a half years after walking off the field in Tokyo, Madison Hughes made his comeback for Team USA.
Last season, he racked up his 100th career try on the World Series, extended his all-time point scoring record for the USA – and earlier this month was selected for a third Olympic Games.
This Madison Hughes ➡️ Aaron Cummings link-up was something special! 😍#HSBCSVNS pic.twitter.com/MBhiGJLXW4
— Rugby Sevens (@SVNSSeries) May 22, 2024
He’s not the whizz-kid captain any more – Kevon Williams has the armband now – but he’s a valuable and experienced pillar of the team. Eagles head coach Mike Friday calls Hughes “The original ‘Captain America’.
“Since he has returned, he has seamlessly fitted in as a team player, being the glue on and off the pitch.”
So as Paris 2024 gets under way, this boy from London will try and make it third time lucky for his motherland, with many of his proud family coming over from the UK on the Eurostar to cheer for him.
The Eagles kick off their Olympic campaign on July 24th against the formidable hosts, France, and if you’re lucky enough to have a ticket, you’ll now know why the most patriotic Americans in the stands will have the loudest English accents.
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