Geenee December 8, 2017 Author Share December 8, 2017 Name: Kristi Leskinen Age: 36 Instagram: @kristileskinen Twitter: @kristileskinen Hometown: Uniontown, Pennsylvania and Scottsdale, Arizona Current occupation: Retired professional skier, athlete mentor, and entrepreneur. Describe what you do: My family owns a resort hotel and a marina in Pennsylvania. I help there where I can. I also have investments in sports-related startups and have a love for mentoring young female athletes. Three words to describe you: Adventurous, daring, and literal. Favorite hobbies: Skiing, wakeboarding, biking, hiking, golfing, and painting. What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? All my medals pale in comparison to the honor of helping to develop a brand new sport and watching it grow from one or two women competing all the way to the Olympics. I'm also very proud to have competed as a pro in multiple sports. What scares you most about traveling? Food poisoning and mosquitos. What excites you most about traveling? Experiencing new and different cultures and seeing all of the world's natural beauty. What country and place would you most like to visit and why? I'd love to see the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. As a skier, I traveled to cold destinations all over the world and I'd love to see the tropics. What do you hope to accomplish by running the race (other than winning $1 million)? The experience of traveling to places I may never get the chance to see otherwise, meeting new friends, and sharing the adventure of a lifetime with them. Name: Jen Hudak Age: 30 Instagram: @jenhudak Twitter: @jenhudak Hometown: Park City, Utah Current occupation: Professional skier, coach/mentor, and marketing manager Describe what you do: As a professional skier I formerly competed intensely on the world stage in halfpipe skiing. I now create content (video, photo, and written word) to share the power that outdoor adventure can have in one's life. It's time spent outdoors, pursuing new challenges, that teaches me about this world and helps me be a better person. I also help various publishing entities make money through referral-based advertising (that's technically my day job now!). Three words to describe you: Indomitable, intelligent, competitive, and empathetic. Favorite hobbies: Skiing, writing, mountain biking, and coaching. What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I am most proud of my impenetrable mind. Coming back from numerous injuries to continue my pursuits in skiing, I was able to return strong and have big wins after some pretty major knee injuries. What scares you most about traveling? Not being able to communicate effectively to get where we're trying to go. Also, potentially getting sick from food and/or water. What excites you most about traveling? Seeing the different ways that people go about their daily lives, immersing myself in someone else's culture, realizing how BIG the world truly is, and experiencing new cuisine! What country and place would you most like to visit and why? I would most like to visit Southeast Asia (Vietnam or Thailand)—it's an area of the world that I've never been able to visit. The mountains and hills look breathtaking and the architecture is majestic. Most of my travels have taken me to snow-capped mountains, so traveling to a warmer climate would be a nice change of pace! What do you hope to accomplish by running the race (other than winning $1 million)? Besides winning, I hope to reignite my inner competitor, to fight hard for something again, and to work as a team toward a common goal! My competitive ski career ended short because of injury and I left some things on the table—I don't want to let that happen ever again! Link to comment
Geenee December 15, 2017 Author Share December 15, 2017 http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57245913&itype=CMSID Quote Utah skier Jen Hudak decries hottest freeskiiers list December 10, 2013 3:37 P.M. Freestyle skier Jen Hudak (who lives in Salt Lake City) is none too fond of the emphasis that Freeskier Magazine puts on the looks of her female peers. On Nov. 29, Freeskier.com published a list of the 10 "hottest women in freeskiing right now," from Ingrid Backstrom to Brita Sigourney, "who would be just as rad to shred with as to take out on a date." Most of the entries make some mention of the women's skills on the slopes (though sometimes only in passing), but Hudak took to her blog the next day to share her concern that the media focus on their beauty distracts from their accomplishments. Looking to another sport, Hudak used NASCAR star Danica Patrick as a case in point. "Danica consistently gets criticized for having bought her way into NASCAR for her marketability (ahem, hotness) and not for her driving ability," Hudak wrote in the post. "The fact of the matter is, that woman is fast behind the wheel of a car … But because of how much she has allowed her appearance to be exploited, people actually lose sight of how talented she is." To further make her point, Hudak encouraged her readers to Google images for Patrick, Kristi Leskinen and Lindsey Vonn, then do the same for male athletes like Jimmie Johnson, Tom Wallisch and Ted Ligety, and see the difference in the results. I did, and what comes up for the women? Sexy photo shoots. For the men? Athletes practicing their sport. "It can get really frustrating as a female athlete to put thousands of hours into your craft, and not get deserved exposure for it," Hudak wrote. "At a certain point, it feels that these opportunities are the only way we can share what we do!" Lynsey Dyer, featured on Freeskier's list, wrote an open letter to the magazine on her Facebook page on Dec. 2, the day after Hudak posted her blog entry. Dyer sympathized with Freeskier's desire to get more web hits in a competitive environment, but asked the magazine to avoid appealing to a lower denominator and try harder, just as her fellow athletes do. Women skiers are performing at a high level and getting recognized as legitimate athletes, "beyond their value as models to sell a product," and producing their own shoots without objectifying themselves, Dyer wrote. "After all, [that would] be the easy way, but they didn't fall in love with skiing because it was easy," she added. In her blog post, Hudak does not firmly place the blame for the bias on any one party, but added that Freeskier's focus should be on the sport and to leave objectification to the likes of Maxim. 3 Link to comment
Geenee January 5, 2018 Author Share January 5, 2018 Welcome to the Bianca/Debbie, Renae/Sam, and Meaghan/Natalie club of all-female premiere leg winners! Link to comment
Geenee January 9, 2018 Author Share January 9, 2018 Exemplary conflict resolution while navigating: Link to comment
Geenee January 12, 2018 Author Share January 12, 2018 Jen's masterful summary of the premiere: http://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-1/ Link to comment
Geenee January 16, 2018 Author Share January 16, 2018 Another fine summation from her, this time of the second episode: http://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-2/ 1 Link to comment
hendersonrocks January 17, 2018 Share January 17, 2018 Thanks so much for sharing these blog posts, Geenee. I'm enjoying them and my appreciation for this team continues to rise. I'm a fan. 2 Link to comment
Geenee January 18, 2018 Author Share January 18, 2018 12 hours ago, hendersonrocks said: Thanks so much for sharing these blog posts, Geenee. I'm enjoying them and my appreciation for this team continues to rise. I'm a fan. You're most welcome, HendersonRocks, and kudos to us for blessing these strong women with their third consecutive top-three placement! 1 Link to comment
Kijimuna January 22, 2018 Share January 22, 2018 Third time's a charm: http://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-3/ Link to comment
Chyna January 27, 2018 Share January 27, 2018 I didn't care that much about the proposal, but Jen's huge gasp when she saw Lucas take out a ring was super cute. 3 Link to comment
Pachamama January 31, 2018 Share January 31, 2018 Double-French round cleared! https://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-4-5/ Link to comment
Chyna February 2, 2018 Share February 2, 2018 Did anyone else notice that Conor had to take the empty kegs one at a time, while Kristi was taking two? Dang. 4 Link to comment
blackwing February 2, 2018 Share February 2, 2018 (edited) They seem nice enough and are good competitors, but they are so bland and boring. I think it's great that they are drama free, but you can be drama free and still be fun and interesting. The twins are drama free but still interesting. They've made so little impression on me that I don't even know which is which. To be fair, I don't know which twin is which (because, well, twins) or which violinist was which (they look similar to me). But I do know that the taller, dark haired Indy car racer is Alex. These two skiers look nothing alike and all I know is that one of them is the blonde with Renee Zellweger-like squinty eyes, and then there's "the other one". The "other one" has such a forgettable look that I wouldn't be able to pick her out from a crowd. Edited February 2, 2018 by blackwing Link to comment
chaifan February 2, 2018 Share February 2, 2018 1 hour ago, blackwing said: These two skiers look nothing alike and all I know is that one of them is the blonde with Renee Zellweger-like squinty eyes, and then there's "the other one". The "other one" has such a forgettable look that I wouldn't be able to pick her out from a crowd. The "other one", I'm pretty sure is Jen, reminds me of Celine Dion. I like this team, and don't find the lack of drama between them as boring at all. To me, they're the only legit "champion" team left. (Team Indy is only 1/2 "champion" and 1/2 couch surfer.) 3 Link to comment
ByaNose February 7, 2018 Share February 7, 2018 On 2/2/2018 at 12:21 PM, blackwing said: They seem nice enough and are good competitors, but they are so bland and boring. I think it's great that they are drama free, but you can be drama free and still be fun and interesting. The twins are drama free but still interesting. They've made so little impression on me that I don't even know which is which. To be fair, I don't know which twin is which (because, well, twins) or which violinist was which (they look similar to me). But I do know that the taller, dark haired Indy car racer is Alex. These two skiers look nothing alike and all I know is that one of them is the blonde with Renee Zellweger-like squinty eyes, and then there's "the other one". The "other one" has such a forgettable look that I wouldn't be able to pick her out from a crowd. I do agree that the "other one" with the brown hair is a little forgettable but seems very nice. This is basically a team that does their task(s) and then move on. There is no drama which makes for a successful team. I much prefer them to Team Rescue. Link to comment
hendersonrocks February 8, 2018 Share February 8, 2018 Here's Jen's blog for the episode that aired last week (Prague). I love the window into each leg that she's giving us! 1 Link to comment
Chyna February 9, 2018 Share February 9, 2018 I don't understand why Kristi was so bent out of shape about Evan not helping them with the map. As a competitor, you'd think she'd comprehend why, when both teams know they're near the back of the pack, another team wouldn't want to give them the answers. I'd expect that sort of illogical indignance from Jessica, but I was surprised to see it in Kristi. Childish. 1 Link to comment
NutMeg February 10, 2018 Share February 10, 2018 I think she was less "bent out of shape" with Evan not helping her that with Kristi providing unsolicited help to Evan (who had not helped before) in the next challenge, right after they had built back a modicum of leeway after starting in last place. 2 Link to comment
Fasio Verdant February 11, 2018 Share February 11, 2018 That's what I got from it, too. I think Kristi is mostly over it, anyway. She and Jen mostly seem like the type to move things along at least a little while after they've happened. 1 Link to comment
SoCal4Us February 25, 2018 Share February 25, 2018 Jen's blog on the finale... https://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-11-12/ Link to comment
Hera February 28, 2018 Share February 28, 2018 This was my favorite team this season, and my pick to win it. I was sad that they couldn't pull it out at the end. If there's ever another second chances season in the future, I imagine they'd be on it; Jen in particular seemed to have a tough time with their loss. Link to comment
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