For First Time Ever, Hun­gar­i­an Snow­board­er Qual­i­fies for Win­ter Olympics

Kamil­la Kozuback has become the first ever Hun­gar­i­an snow­board­er to qual­i­fy for the Win­ter Olympics. The 17-year-old half-Cana­di­an, half-Hun­gar­i­an ath­lete will hit the slopes in the half-pipe in Beijing.

In snow­board, quo­tas were allo­cat­ed accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Ski Federation’s (FIS) rank­ing on Jan­u­ary 17. And thanks to her 24^th place at the Laax Open, Kozuback secured her tick­et to Beijing.

Born in Cal­gary to a Cana­di­an father and Hun­gar­i­an moth­er, Kozuback is a dual cit­i­zen, who report­ed­ly spent sum­mers in Hun­gary with her grandparents.

She start­ed com­pet­ing at the age of 11, and at the 2020 Youth Olympics she was still com­pet­ing in Cana­di­an col­ors. Report­ed­ly, it was Kozuback her­self who request­ed she con­tin­ue her adult career in Hun­gar­i­an col­ors. “I was think­ing that if I com­pet­ed in Hun­gar­i­an col­ors, it would be a ges­ture to show them my love,” she once said.

The trans­fer, how­ev­er also meant that she had to miss offi­cial com­pe­ti­tions for one year, and could only return last Decem­ber, cer­tain­ly leav­ing her a lim­it­ed time to secure a quota.The Nagano Games in 1998 were the first games with snow­board­ing on the pro­gram. Ever since then, no Hun­gar­i­an has ever been able to gain qual­i­fi­ca­tion. A male snow­board­er was also in the run­ning for a chance to com­pete in the Chi­nese cap­i­tal, but Botond Fricz was unable to bag enough points due to injury and his coro­n­avirus infection.

At the moment, Hun­gar­i­ans have 14 quo­tas in five sports for the upcom­ing Win­ter Olympics: alpine ski­ing (2), cross-coun­try ski­ing (2), fig­ure skat­ing (2), short track speed skat­ing (7) and snow­board­ing (1).

Fea­tured image via Instagram

Source: hun​gary​to​day​.hu