Brittany Hudak aspires to return home with a silver or gold medal. (Image Credit: Facebook/ Brittany Hudak)

By Nigel Maxwell

Local athletes

Prince Albert raised paralympian excited about fourth Winter Games appearance

Feb 18, 2026 | 6:00 PM

In less than a week, Brittany Hudak will pack her bags and board a plane for Italy.

Raised in Prince Albert but living in Canmore since 2015, the 32-year-old is competing at the Paralympic Winter Games and has been named one of the co-captains of Canada’s team. Given the fact how well she knows and gets along with everyone on the team, she said it’s a huge honour.

“I just feel so much pride that I’ll have the honour of kind of speaking on behalf of them and just sharing more how everyone is doing,” she said.

Hudak been with the team for over a decade and this year will mark her fourth time competing at the games. Acknowledging her role as a veteran is to help the younger athletes on the team, she said the games are very exciting but can also be very overwhelming if you’re not prepared for them.

“There’s a lot more media attention and cameras and sometimes people can get a bit overwhelmed with the excitement and there’s just a lot of distractions around”, she said, adding when it comes to the endurance events, extra focus must be applied to where you place your energy.

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Hudak plans to compete in multiple cross country and biathlon races. (Image Credit: Facebook/ Brittany Hudak)

 At the 2022 Games in Beijing, Hudak produced her best Games yet with a double medal performance.

She took bronze in the 15 kilometre women’s standing race and was also third in the 12.5 kilometre biathlon event. While she expressed a desire to return home with a different medal, she also explained para-sports have really grown over the past few years, and so with more athletes in the field, the level of competition has also increased.

“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,” she said.

The Paralympic Winter Games will run from March 6 to March 15 and will feature six sports: Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country skiing, Para ice hockey, Para snowboarding, and wheelchair curling.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell