Quick Facts
Biography
Jenny Owens (born 17 May 1978), from Sydney, Australia was an Australian Alpine Skier & freestyle skier who now lives in St Kilda, Victoria.
Owens competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Alpine, the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics in Freestyle. Owens has also competed in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships twice and the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships twice, competed for six years on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup tour and 9 years on FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup and has competed in four Winter X Games. She won the Bronze medal in the SkierX in 2012. Owens was a member of the Australian Ski Cross Team for nine years and was a member of the Australian Alpine Team for seven years before that.
Skiing career
Owens made her Alpine World Cup debut in St Moritz Switzerland on 17 December 1999 at age 21. She also collected her first World Cup points (top-30 finish in a race) at this event.
Owens struggled to make the top-30 consistently and did not score any more World Cup points until 21 December 2001 back in St Moritz. Owens best placing on the World Cup Alpine tour was 17th in Saalbach-Hinterglemm Austria.
Owens competed in alpine skiing for 14 years, skiing in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (Australia at the Winter Olympics) and in two world Championships, St Anton 2001 and St Moritz 2003. She retired from Alpine racing in January 2004. In June 2005, Owens decided to make a come back and compete in the new Olympic event (for Vancouver 2010) called Ski Cross.
Owens landed on the podium a number of time throughout her World Cup Ski Cross career but had several injuries previous to the Vancouver Olympics and underwent two knee surgeries, the first four months and the other four weeks before the Games. Owens placed 13th in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Winter Games. She underwent her fourth knee surgery (second ACL reconstruction) right after the Olympics in March 2010.
Owens was back on the Ski Cross tour in 2011 collecting a bronze medal at the 2010–11 FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Canada and also place 5th at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2011 in Deer Valley USA and also collected a Bronze at the 2012 Winter X Games.
Owens competed at her third ( 2014 Winter Olympics ) in Sochi, Russia placing 12th and then retired from skiing for her second time.
Owens has decided to return to alpine skiing with an aim to make selection for the 2017 Alpine World Championships in St Moritz, Switzrerland where her alpine World Cup career started and finished.
Olympics
Sochi 2014 – Freestyle
- Finished 12th in the Ski cross
Vancouver 2010 – Freestyle
- Finished 13th in the Ski cross
Salt Lake 2002 – Alpine
- Finished 9th in the combined
- Finished 29th in the downhill
- Finished 28th in the super-G
- Did not finish in giant slalom
- Did not start in slalom
World championships
Voss NOR 2013 – Freestyle
- DNF in ski cross
Deer Valley USA 2011 – Freestyle
- 5th position in ski cross
Inawashiro JPN 2009 – Freestyle
- 15th position in ski cross
St Moritz SUI 2003 – Alpine
- DNF downhill due to injury
St Anton AUT 2001 – Alpine
- 31 – Downhill
- 34 – Super-G
- 31 – Giant slalom
World Cup
Owens has had two silver and two bronze medals on the Freestyle World Cup tour to date in her career.
Owens has been one of the top ranked ski cross athletes since her debut in 2005. In 2009–2010 she had numerous injuries and missed eight of the scheduled world cups and nearly the Vancouver 2010.
Owens competed on the Alpine World Cup for six years, placing in the top 30 several times in the Combined and Downhill events.
Winter X Games
- Invitation 2012 – qualified 4th = BRONZE
- Invitation 2008 – qualified 9th = 4th in semi, did not start small finals
- Invitation 2007 – qualified 12th = 3rd in semi, DNF finals
- Invitation 2005 – qualified 3rd = injured herself in training prior to the finals