Hungary’s first Olympic snowboarder heads to Aspen Grand Prix ready to go even bigger

Kamilla Kozuback isn’t among the household names competing this week at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix in Aspen and Snowmass. But in her mother’s native land of Hungary, a country Kozuback represents on the world stage, she’s a bit of a rock star.

“I wasn’t expecting to make it to the Olympics or build up a name in Hungary,” she recently recalled when talking to the Aspen Times. “It wasn’t my goal. I just wanted to snowboard. And then I was the first Hungarian snowboarder to ever make it to the Olympics, and I was the only girl that did all three disciplines. … I just did it for the love of snowboarding and now I’m trying to get to my second Olympic Games representing Hungary.”

Kozuback, now 21, was born and raised in Calgary. A skier at first, she switched to snowboarding at age 9 — to match her mother’s own on-snow preference — and grew up competing in the local Canadian clubs. She briefly competed for Team Canada’s Next Gen team at 16, but after competing in the Youth Olympic Games in 2020, she decided to make the full switch to riding for Hungary.

This led to her going to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she became Hungary’s first-ever Olympic snowboarder. She competed in slopestyle (28^th), halfpipe (19^th), and big air (17^th).

“Looking back now, I was a kid, for sure. I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea who anyone was, and no one knew who I was,” Kozuback said of her first Olympics. “I just remember having cameras everywhere. It was cold in China. I remember not liking the food. But it was a crazy experience. It was my first time hitting a scaffolding big air jump. I had never done that. The crowds, the TV, it was overwhelming, but I feel I grew a lot from it, and I learned a lot from it.”

Thankfully, she had her father, a therapist who had worked the Olympics dating back to 2010 and knew how to navigate the chaos that is the Games.

Kozuback stepped away from halfpipe riding following the 2022 Olympics and since has put all her focus on slopestyle and big air. So far this winter, she’s competed in three big air World Cup contests, the first two in China. The most recent competition, held mid-December in Steamboat Springs, resulted in her best finish of the season at 17^th overall.

Next for the 2026 Olympic hopeful is her first time competing in Aspen. She’ll ride in the women’s snowboard slopestyle qualifiers on Thursday in Snowmass. Should she advance, the finals would be Saturday.

“I’m really excited. I’ve only seen Aspen through X Games videos,” she said. “I’m just going to soak it all up.”

Also unique to her story is the fact she is diabetic. At 13, she almost died from diabetic ketoacidosis, and it was her mother identifying the symptoms that saved her life.

These days, Kozuback doesn’t see her battle with type 1 diabetes as a determent to her career, but rather something that can actually help her along her snowboard journey.

“If anything, it helps. Yeah, you have to be more aware of yourself,” she said. “But I think you learn so much about your body and good foods. It just makes you stronger and a better athlete at the end of the day. That’s how I like to look at it. For a long time I didn’t like talking about it. I was more embarrassed, I guess is the right word. But now I like to use it and promote it and show people you can do it.”

Thursday’s slopestyle qualifiers in Snowmass are scheduled to go from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A lift ticket will be required to access the mid-mountain venue, but spectating is otherwise free. The halfpipe competitions, which Kozuback is not competing in, will all be held at Buttermilk Ski Area.

acolbert@aspentimes.com