Hudey set for second Olympic experience
Marsha Hudey took the fast track to her first Winter Olympic Games. Four years later, the White City-born speedskater is once again poised to compete on sport’s grandest stage.
On Wednesday, the 27-yearold Hudey was named to Canada’s long-track speed-skating team for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“It’s awesome,” Hudey said Wednesday from Calgary. “We just had our trials last weekend, and I was pretty nervous up until that point. Now that it’s official, it’s pretty exciting.”
What was the news like the second time around?
“It’s different in the sense that I’ve gotten a little bit more experience over these last four years,” she said. “My first Games was my first international racing season. I made the World Cup team in the fall and that was the very first time I ever made the team. Then I made the team to go to Sochi, so it was a big year for me and it was a lot for me to take in.
“I kind of found myself at those Games thinking, ‘OK, here I am. This has been my dream for so long,’ but I didn’t really quite have the experience to go into those Games. I think that’s going to be the biggest thing and what’s going to feel the most different — just the international racing experience.”
Earlier this season, Hudey won her first World Cup medal, a silver in the 500 metre race in Stavanger, Norway.
Canada’s long-track team will also include Regina’s Kali Christ, another second-time Olympian. Hudey and Christ both took up the sport as members of the Regina Speed Skating Club.