An "absolutely heartbroken" Piera Hudson has slammed Snow Sports NZ and the New Zealand Olympic Committee's selection process after not being picked for the Winter Games for a second-straight campaign.
Hudson was hoping to head to Beijing alongside Alice Robinson as another New Zealand alpine skier but was denied by selectors ahead of this month's grand event.
The omission comes despite Hudson's impressive resume from the past decade which included attending world championships, the Youth Olympics and dominant outings at national championships.
Her form was similar in 2018 before the PyeongChang Games - that year becoming the first Kiwi since Olympian Claudia Riegler 15 years earlier to score World Cup points - but she missed out then too.
After more disappointment four years later, Hudson took to social media to express her pent-up feelings.
"I am absolutely heartbroken to be saying that I will not be representing New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics," Hudson posted on Instagram.
"After qualifying in 2018 and not being selected then, I went on to become the first Kiwi in 15 years to score World Cup points. I truly believed I would receive some sort of help or support from my federation or my country over the next four years, but that was not the case.
"Fast forward to now, despite having a less than ideal qualification period with multiple injuries, and Covid interruptions preventing me from training and travelling for key races, I still managed to partially make the criteria, and was getting faster and building momentum for Beijing.
"Unfortunately, this was not enough in SSNZ’s eyes and they once again did not nominate me to the NZOC."
New Zealand qualified three women's spots in alpine skiing for Beijing but Robinson - who has three World Cup victories to her name - was the only one named in the 15-strong contingent.
Hudson couldn't understand why she wasn't given the chance to be No.16.
"It is devastating to be told no, and ignored over and over again by a federation who does nothing to support me in any way, but still has the power to control my outcomes and opportunities in a sport that I have dedicated my life to," Hudson said.
"I am not the first athlete to be affected by a blanket criteria across all sports in New Zealand that just does not make sense.
We saw this last year before Tokyo, with our track and field, javelin, judo and archery athletes - Athletes who all hold national titles, NZ records, made history for our country, but are being penalised by a system that can not be fairly applied across all sporting codes."
Hudson wished those going "all the best" despite her frustrations.
"This is your moment so go out there and crush it."
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