{"id":275764,"date":"2026-02-09T21:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/275764\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T21:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:33:49","slug":"hawkes-bay-has-its-first-winter-olympian-but-piera-hudson-is-representing-another-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/275764\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay has its first Winter Olympian \u2013 but Piera Hudson is representing another country"},"content":{"rendered":"

She even had the honour of being a flag bearer for the nation at the opening ceremony, and will race in the women\u2019s giant slalom on Sunday (local time) and the women\u2019s slalom next Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"PieraPiera Hudson in action at a World Cup slalom event in 2021. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Hawke\u2019s Bay-raised athlete\u2019s journey to the Winter Olympics has been as painful as it has been remarkable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She has overcome four knee surgeries<\/a> and \u201clost count of the broken and fractured bones\u201d she has suffered over the years.<\/p>\n

The heartbreak of missing selection for the New Zealand team at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Games<\/a> also hurt.<\/p>\n

To finally compete at the Winter Olympics is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt genuinely means everything to me,\u201d she told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today from Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been my dream since I was a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cMum and Dad put me on skis at the age of 4 and by age 8 I was already in love with ski racing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not just doing this for myself, I\u2019m doing it for my whole family, and my wider community, who have supported me through the highest highs and lowest lows one can face in sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe everything to the ones who have always believed in me, including myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PieraPiera Hudson says it is a dream come true to be competing at the Winter Olympics. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

Hudson said the opportunity to represent the UAE came about after shifting to Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had family in the UAE for decades now and spent a lot of time there growing up. <\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, I moved to Dubai to have a base closer to Europe so I didn\u2019t have to make the long trek back to NZ so much. <\/p>\n

\u201cI met the team at the UAE Winter Federation and at Ski Dubai and they welcomed me with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

When not training in Europe, she has been training at the indoor Ski Dubai facility.<\/p>\n

Missing out on New Zealand selection at previous Winter Olympics played a part in her decision to switch allegiances once she was eligible, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI represented NZ for most of my career but you get to a point where you\u2019re putting in years of blood, sweat and tears, literally, and you\u2019re not receiving any support, resources or funding in return.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became very clear that they weren\u2019t going to support me in my Olympic dreams and … when the opportunity came to represent the UAE, a country that supported me from day one, and listened to my needs as an athlete, I would\u2019ve been silly not to run full speed at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is one of just two athletes in UAE\u2019s first Winter Olympics team.<\/p>\n

Hudson has been vocal in the past about her goal to be the region\u2019s first Winter Olympian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing Hawke\u2019s Bay\u2019s first Winter Olympian is such a huge honour. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people and the land in the Bay raised me and made me who I am today. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents and I often joke, how did a little country kid that grew up on a farm in Tikokino, nowhere near the mountains, or the desert end up living out this crazy dream and merging those lives together?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudson attended Havelock North school Woodford House as a teenager.<\/p>\n

As for her goal at the Olympics, she does not have a definitive rank in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, a medal is the big dream, but I can only control what I can control, and ski racing is a sport of very fine lines. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go out there and leave nothing on the table and if I cross that finish line knowing I couldn\u2019t have done anything more, then I will be happy with whatever the outcome is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her main event is the women\u2019s slalom, where athletes ski down a course, weaving through a series of gates.<\/p>\n

Hudson has won multiple NZ titles for both the women\u2019s giant slalom and women\u2019s slalom.<\/p>\n

When to watch Piera Hudson from NZ: <\/p>\n

The women\u2019s giant slalom event will be held at 10pm on Sunday, February 15 (run 1) and 1.30am Monday, February 16 (run 2).<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s slalom event will be held at 10pm next Wednesday, February 18 (run 1) and 1.30am next Thursday, February 19 (run 2). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She even had the honour of being a flag bearer for the nation at the opening ceremony, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9526,20497,1561,7793,1558,682,3013,6184,2841,299,1888,71,6871,1976,25475,36204,185,302,27135,13631,111,139,69,46449,155360,52084,6633,213,23644],"class_list":["post-275764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-another","tag-barrier","tag-bay","tag-bays","tag-been","tag-being","tag-but","tag-childhood","tag-country","tag-dream","tag-first","tag-from","tag-has","tag-hawkes","tag-hudson","tag-hudsons","tag-is","tag-its","tag-lack","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-olympian","tag-piera","tag-representing","tag-snow","tag-sports","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}