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Brittany Hudak could be adding some more medals to her collection.
The Prince Albert woman is competing in her fourth Paralympics and came into the event as a three-time bronze medallist, earning two in 2022 and one in 2018.
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The 32-year-old para nordic skier said one of the great things about para sport has been its recent growth.
“The level of competition has also gotten harder, and the fields are deeper than what we’ve seen in the past. This winter in Germany, our cross-country fields were bigger than we’ve ever seen, which is really exciting,” Hudak told paNOW.
“As an athlete, you’re kind of taking in all these factors. The main goal is always to do better than you did before. So for me, I guess that would mean a different medal or always reaching the Paralympic podium is a huge success and goal, but taking all these things into account, you never kind of know.”
This year is extra special for Hudak, as she has been named one of the co-captains for Team Canada.
“I think it’s really going to allow us to share more details on where our team is at and how athletes are feeling into the games and how things are going for the team. It’s a huge honour for me to have the role as co-captain. I’ve been with the team for over a decade now, which is pretty crazy, but really exciting,” Hudak said.
“It feels really special to me, because I know a lot of the athletes really well and get along well with the team, and I think I just feel so much pride that all have the honour of speaking on behalf of the team and just sharing more how everyone is doing and what our journeys have looked like leading into these Games.
“I’m really excited to see how things unfold at the Games as well.”
According to her bio on the Canadian Paralympic Committee website, Hudak was discovered by Paralympian Colette Bourgonje at a Canadian Tire in Prince Albert.
Hudak, who was born missing part of her left arm, was introduced to cross-country skiing by Bourgonje, who was her teammate for the 2014 games in Sochi.
Now she focuses on biathlon but will compete in five different races throughout the Paralympics in Italy, which run until March 15. At this year’s event, she has placed fifth to date in the Para biathlon (women’s individual, standing) and sixth in another Para biathlon race (women’s sprint, standing).
“Typically, we kind of skip one race because it just gets to be too much. Then you notice the quality goes down. So I think I’ll just be looking to target five individual races,” Hudak said.
While the goal is to get a medal, Hudak just wants to go out and make sure she puts out the best performance she can.
“Everyone is hoping for their best races. So I think I’m trying to look at the bigger picture of I just want to have my best races, and if my best on the day is a fifth rather than a silver, I’ll be happy with that knowing we have more competitors and things are always getting harder to podium,” Hudak said.
— with files from paNOW.
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