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Jen Hudak has won nearly every skiing competition out there—X-Games, US Open, World Ski Invitational, Dew Tour, US Nationals, you name it—so you could say she knows a thing or two about the sport. But this 29-year-old’s wisdom reaches far beyond how to alley-oop. Here, in the her most raw interview to date, Hudak discusses her struggle with body image, the bullshit in the ski industry, and her relationship with Sarah Burke, the pioneer of the superpipe, who died tragically at age 30 from a training accident. Have tissues handy for that last part.
Hudak voices female athletes’ serious yearning to be acknowledged for their athleticism separate from their beauty 'til she’s blue in the face. She says she got caught up in the whole looks thing in her mid-to-late teens after observing that putting yourself out there in a more sexual way yielded more opportunities.
Hudak eventually said eff that shit when she found herself in a bubblebath for a “Women of Freeskiing” photoshoot for Freeskier Magazine. You tell me how ripping and bathing are similar. I’m scratching my head...
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There’s a blurry line between being a professional female athlete and being an athlete-model, and Hudak’s working on making it clearer. “If women don’t want to be exploited, and they don’t want these images of themselves being put in the media," Hudak said, "Then don’t produce images… of yourself… in a bikini.” Bam. Pretty basic step number one.
Hudak wraps up by talking about how Burke’s fatal accident helped her realize her mission was no longer to compete to be the best female halfpipe skier in the world. The stakes were too high. At some point in professional athleticism, you just have to say you’ve done enough, and walk away. Hudak’s tip is to walk away with a little bit undone; you never know what could have happened if you had done that little bit more.
