Ski Racing - October 31, 2011

Jen Hudak competes at the ski halfpipe 2010 U.S. Freestyle Championships at Park City Mountain Resort.

Pipe Dreams

Halfpipe’s Jen Hudak gives us the low-
down on flying high. BY BRYCE HUBNER

When the U.S. Freeskiing team was formed earlier this year, USSA inherited some household names with world-class talent, including Jen Hudak. At just 25, she has already been at the forefront of her sport for more than a decade, garnering loads of X Games superpipe medals and a couple F.I.S. Freestyle World Championships medals along the way.

Ski Racing recently tracked down Hudak to ask her about ski halfpipe’s addition to the Olympic docket and her new home on the U.S. Freeskiing team.

How do you feel about ski halfpipe’s addition to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games?

I’ve been advocating for ski halfpipe to be in the Olympics for about 10 years. In some respects, I’ve been in the sport from the beginning and I’ve really focused on it from the USSA side. I competed in the first ski World Junior Championships in 2003 in Newfoundland and the first World Cup in 2004 in Switzerland. For a while, we’ve kind of had two worlds divided between [USSA and F.I.S. events] and all of our open contests. Now, with the Olympics inclusion, those two worlds need to find a way to exist together, and that really excites me because I think that there’s so much potential for the sport and it’s only really just beginning to come together. Obviously, I’m really excited about the Olympics and looking forward to competing there, but there are a lot of steps that have to happen between now and then! I have to keep my eyes on the step right in front of me, which, for right now, is making it through another season successfully, continuing to learn tricks, and enjoying the journey.