Jan Hudec

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]

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]

• FIS Alpine.com – Jan Hudec speaks Czech (with Ondřej Bank) and talks about his roots – 2011-03-12
• YouTube.com – Hudec's winning DH run at Lake Louise – 2007-11-24
• YouTube.com – Jan Hudec wins at Chamonix – from Universal Sports – 2012-02-03

• Jan Hudec at the International Ski Federation
• Jan Hudec World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation
• Jan Hudec at Ski-DB Alpine Ski Database
• Jan Hudec at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Official website
• Rossignol.com – team – alpine – Jan Hudec
• Alpine Canada.org – national ski team – athletes – Jan Hudec