Skiing: I'll make it to next Winter Olympics says Piera Hudson after missing out once more

Piera Hudson is setting her sights on 2022 Tokyo Winter Olympics after missing out on the Pyeongchang Games starting in South Korea next Friday. Photo/file

Hawke's Bay alpine skier Piera Hudson has again missed out on making the Winter Olympics - this time to South Korea.

"Not the update I wanted to give everyone today but, sadly, I won't be competing in the Winter Olympics next month," Hudson said via social media last week.

"I did everything I could and gave it my best shot but sometimes that's not quite enough. Despite making criteria and being the best ranked sl [slalom] skier in New Zealand, my governing body decided not to nominate me to the Olympic committee for my individual events," the 21-year-old wrote on Instagram on January 26.

Hudson, who captured the imagination of the skiing world as a youngster growing in Tikokino where parents Fiona and John used to be farmers, found cold comfort in her bid to make the New Zealand team for the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia in February 2014.

Snow Sports New Zealand and the New Zealand Olympic Committee had changed the alpine selection process a year before and the Hudsons were left lamenting "tough prerequisites".

However, the former Woodford House pupil, who has spent a good part of her life trying to tame the powdery slopes of Europe and America to buttress her resume and woo the selectors, was dealt another cruel blow when she failed to make the cull for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics starting on Friday next week.

"We can't control everything that happens to us in life but we can control how it [sic] effects us and what we do about it, and you can be sure that this outcome has made me want it more than ever and I will do everything I can to ensure I am there in four years' time," says Hudson of her intention to have another shot at the 24th Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, in 2022.

The two-time Central Hawke's Bay Sportsperson of the Year award winner wished the New Zealanders competing at the Pyeongchang Olympics the best of luck.

"I'm rooting for every single one of you, make NZ proud," the former Hawke's Bay Junior Sportsperson of the Year said.

Hudson thanked her parents, relatives, support network, coach Jonny Rice, and myriad sponsors for their concerted drive.

"Everyone who has contributed to me, thank you," she said.

Hudson, who returns home to Havelock North in autumn, had more than 50 well wishers on Instagram.

"Ironically I have to laugh at the situation otherwise I'll cry," she responded to a comment.

Her determination to be the first athlete to represent the province at the Winter Olympics remains intact.

"Not the first athlete to be and sadly won't be the last but I'll make sure it never happens to me again," said an adamant Hudson to a well wisher.

She didn't bear any grudge against the New Zealand Olympic Committee because Snowsports New Zealand simply "didn't give me a chance".

Hudson has endured back-to-back winters since she was 9 and in her early teens lived overseas away from her family for six months every year so she could train and compete.

In the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics, Snowsports NZ also came under scathing criticism from other athletes who missed the cut. Former Olympic biathlete Sarah Murphy also missed out, prompting some to label New Zealand's selection criteria "laughable" and biathlon administrators to lobby the NZOC for policy change.