Jan Hudec

Last updated

Jan Hudec
Personal information
Born (1981-08-19) August 19, 1981 (age 43)
Šumperk, Czechoslovakia
Occupation Alpine skier
Height183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Skiing career
Disciplines Downhill, Super-G
Club Banff Alpine Racers
World Cup debutFebruary 2, 2002 (age 20)
Olympics
Teams3 – (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals1 (0 gold)
World Championships
Teams5 – (2003, 2007–13, 2017)
Medals1 (0 gold)
World Cup
Seasons12 – (2004–15)
Wins2 – (2 DH)
Podiums5 – (3 DH, 2 SG)
Overall titles0 – (16th in 2012)
Discipline titles0 – (6th in SG, 2012)
Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2014 Sochi Super-G
World Championships
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2007 Åre Downhill

Jan Hudec Jr. (born August 19, 1981) is a Czech-Canadian alpine ski racer who previously represented Canada until 2016 and specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G. Beset by injuries for several seasons, he returned to World Cup form in 2012 at age 30 and gained his second victory. At the 2014 Winter Olympics, Hudec won the bronze medal in the super-G at Rosa Khutor. It was the first Olympic medal for Canada in men's alpine skiing in 20 years. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in Šumperk, Czechoslovakia, Hudec defected in a homemade raft with his parents to West Germany while an infant. [2] The family moved to Canada in 1986 and settled in Red Deer, Alberta, where Jan Sr. was a ski coach. In 1993 the Hudecs, now a family of four with younger brother Phil, moved to Banff where both parents worked at the Banff Mountain Ski Academy. [3]

Career

Hudec emerged as a World Cup downhiller in February 2007; he won the silver medal in downhill at the 2007 World Championships in Åre, Sweden, followed up with a fifth place at Garmisch, Germany. That November he won his first World Cup event, a downhill in Lake Louise, but suffered a season-ending knee injury while training in Switzerland two months later. In January 2009, Hudec had a comeback at the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, where he finished eighth, but three weeks later an injury at the 2009 World Championships downhill in Val-d'Isère, France, ended his 2009 season.

In the following two seasons, Hudec battled injuries and had just one top-ten result, a tenth-place finish in March 2011. His results improved significantly in the 2012 season, which included his second World Cup victory in February at the Kandahar downhill in Chamonix, France. [4] Later that month he ascended his first World Cup super-G podium as the runner-up at Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

At the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Hudec competed in several events, and was twentieth in the downhill. Hudec next competed in the super-G and won bronze, tied with Bode Miller. [1] After the race he noted to local media that had buried a lucky loonie at the finish line of the race. Upon commenting he noted to CBC Sports that "Who cares if it helped. That loonie is worth more than a buck now, I can tell you that." [1] The medal was the first for Canada in alpine skiing at the Olympics in twenty years. [1]

Left off Canada's team for the 2016–17 season, Hudec competed for the Czech Republic at the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Winter Olympics. [5]

In 2019, the native Welsh band 'Papur Wal' released a song commemorating Hudec's childhood and career. Called 'Yn Y Weriniaeth Tsiec' the song translates from Welsh to 'In The Czech Republic'. An upbeat indie classic, the song proved to be a hit in Wales especially among the indie music scene in the country which is spearheaded by the nations young people. Hudec was shown the song recently he described it as 'the best song I've ever heard' following on by thanking Papur Wal and expressing his love and gratitude to the Welsh people and Wales as a country.

World Cup results

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiant
slalom		Super-GDownhillCombined
2003 21123——44——
2004 22116——36——
2005 2391——4537—
2006 24injured, out for season
2007 2569——2931—
2008 2637——2413—
2009 27101———39—
2010 28102——3844—
2011 2975——4526—
2012 3016——69—
2013 3135——1521—
2014 3234——1124—
2015 3382——3043—

Top ten finishes

SeasonDateLocationDisciplinePlace
2005 Nov 27, 2004 Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 7th
2007 Feb 24, 2007 Garmisch, GermanyDownhill5th
2008 Nov 24, 2007Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill1st
Nov 25, 2007 Super-G 8th
Dec 3, 2007 Beaver Creek, USASuper-G9th
Dec 14, 2007 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G9th
Dec 29, 2007 Bormio, ItalyDownhill3rd
2009 Jan 17, 2009 Wengen, SwitzerlandDownhill8th
2011 Mar 11, 2011 Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill10th
2012 Nov 27, 2011Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G4th
Dec 16, 2011Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G10th
Jan 21, 2012 Kitzbühel, AustriaDownhill10th
Feb 3, 2012 Chamonix, FranceDownhill6th
Feb 4, 2012Downhill1st
Feb 24, 2012 Crans-Montana, SwitzerlandSuper-G2nd
Feb 25, 2012Super-G5th
Mar 8, 2012Kvitfjell, NorwaySuper-G6th
Mar 14, 2012 Schladming, AustriaDownhill8th
2013 Dec 1, 2012Beaver Creek, USASuper-G10th
Mar 2, 2013Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill6th
2014 Dec 1, 2013Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G10th
Dec 6, 2013Beaver Creek, USADownhill7th
Dec 20, 2013Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G2nd

Videos

World Championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
2003 21——7——
2005 23—————
2007 25 — — 7 2 —
2009 27 — — — DNF —
2011 29 — — DNF 25 —
2013 31 — — 12 9 —
2015 33—————
2017 35 — — 32 39 —

Olympic results Olympic rings.svg

  Year   Age  Slalom Giant
 slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
2010 28 — — 24 25 —
2014 32 — — 3 21 —
2018 36 — — DNF 45 —

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ng, Curtis (February 16, 2014). "Jan Hudec bronze snaps Canadian alpine medal drought". cbc.ca. Archived from the original on February 16, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ FIS Alpine.com – Five things you should know about Jan Hudec – February 8, 2012.
  3. ↑ janhudec.com – bio – accessed February 24, 2012.
  4. ↑ Ski Racing.com – Hudec leads 1–3–5 Canadian showing in Chamonix – February 4, 2012.
  5. ↑ Spencer, Donna (November 26, 2017). "Canadian-turned-Czech skier Jan Hudec not giving up on Olympic dream". The Canadian Press. CBC News.
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