Karen Budge

Karen Annette Budge is a former FIS [Alpine Ski World Cup|World Cup] alpine ski racer from the United States. She had three podium finishes and 30 top ten results in World Cup competitions between 1967 and 1972; overall her best result was 15th place in the 1969–70 season. At the Alpine [skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics|1972 Winter Olympics] she placed 14th in the downhill and 23rd in the giant slalom events.
Born and raised in Jackson, Wyoming, Budge married Gordi Eaton, a former alpine ski racer and coach. They reside in Middlebury, Vermont and co-own a restaurant in Lincoln, New Hampshire, in the White [Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains] near Loon Mountain and Cannon Mountain ski areas.
At the 1968 Winter Olympics in France, eighteen-year-old Budge was testing her wax on a practice course an hour before the 1968 Winter Olympics – [Women's">Alpine skiing at the 1968 Winter Olympics">1968 Winter Olympics – [Women's downhill|women's downhill] at Chamrousse, and narrowly avoided a full collision with a member of the Moroccan men's team, Said Housni, who had been warned once before to stay off the hill. She fell, suffered a dislocated shoulder, and did not start.