Henrik Windstedt

From World Cup moguls and Olympic dreams to the top of the Freeskiing World Tour, the X Games and filming with MSP in Alaska, Henrik Windstedt may be one of the most diverse skiers of our generation. But the Swede’s path to the top has been a bumpy one–a back injury almost ended his career and killed his Olympic dreams. Yet Windstedt has risen up in the face of adversity and at 28 years young, Windstedt is in his prime. Cody Townsend provides an intimate look into the trials, tribulations and success of the tenacious Henrik Windstedt.

…the other competitors probably thought it was weird that Windstedt only skied two runs the entire day and came through with an impressive win. But what he didn’t let on at Winter Park was that he had only skied two runs because a bone-pinching pain began to erupt in his back. Windstedt fought through and moved on to the final two pre-Olympic events in Park City, Utah. He skied tentatively to guard his pain. In between runs he crawled into the lodge and laid flat on the cold floors. But as he continued to hammer through rock hard moguls the pain in his back surged upward and his results stepped downward. Eventually he stopped skiing altogether. He gave in to what doctors would later tell him was two fractured discs in his lower back. Unknowingly, Windstedt had been skiing with a broken back for over a month…

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