Ester Ledecká

Ester Ledecká (Czech pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛr ˈlɛdɛtskaː], born 23 March 1995) is a Czech snowboarder and alpine skier. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Ledecká won gold medals in the super-G in alpine skiing, and in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, becoming the first person to win two gold medals at the same Winter Olympics using two different types of equipment (skis and snowboard). She was the second woman to win Olympic gold in two separate disciplines but the first to do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the first Czech to win the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.

Bc. Ester Ledecká
Ester Ledecká
Personal information
Born (1995-03-23) 23 March 1995
Prague, Czech Republic
ResidencePrague, Czech Republic
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Country Czech Republic
SportSnowboarding
Alpine skiing
Event(s)Parallel slalom, parallel giant slalom
Downhill, super-G, combined
ClubDukla Liberec
Coached byJustin Reiter (snowboard)
Tomáš Bank, Ondřej Bank (ski)[1]
Achievements and titles
World finals Gold medal in parallel slalom at Kreischberg 2015
Gold medal in parallel giant slalom at Sierra Nevada 2017
Silver medal in parallel slalom at Sierra Nevada 2017
Olympic finals
Highest world ranking
Medal record
Representing  Czech Republic
Women's snowboarding
International snowboarding competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 1 0 0
World Championships 2 1 0
Junior World Championships 2 0 0
Total 5 1 0
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangParallel giant slalom
World Championships
2015 KreischbergParallel slalom
2017 Sierra NevadaParallel giant slalom
2017 Sierra NevadaParallel slalom
Junior World Championships
2013 ErzurumParallel slalom
2013 ErzurumParallel giant slalom
Women's alpine skiing
International alpine skiing competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 1 0 0
World Championships 0 0 0
Total 1 0 0
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangSuper-G
Ledecká with Martina Sáblíková (left) at Old Town Square in Prague after returning from the 2018 Winter Olympics

Early life

Ester Ledecká was born in Prague, to mother Zuzana, a figure skater[2] and father Janek Ledecký, a well-known musician in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.[3][4] She comes from a sporting family: her grandfather is former ice hockey player Jan Klapáč, who was a seven-time World Championship and two-time Olympic medallist.[4] In 2014, she was still at high school, attending a distance-learning programme in Prague.[5]

Ice hockey was the first sport she took up as a child, before taking up skiing at the age of four and later adding snowboarding.[2] "I was following what my brother did," Ester says.[6] "He is one and a half years older than me and so when he started with a board, I wanted to do it too. I was five years old when I started snowboarding and I did freestyle snowboarding and boardercross until I was about thirteen years old. And again it was my brother who started with alpine snowboarding and I wanted to beat him, so I learned that too."

Her hobbies include playing the guitar and singing.[7] She also enjoys participating in summer sports such as beach volleyball and windsurfing.[2]

Career

Ledecká competed in her first World Cup tournament in the 2012–13 competition, finishing in 13th place in the parallel giant slalom event.[3] In March 2013, at the age of 17, she won gold in the parallel slalom event at the Junior World Championships, her second gold of the competition.[8] She was named "Junior Sportsperson of the year" at the Czech Republic's 2013 Sportsperson of the Year awards.[9]

During the 2013–14 FIS Snowboard World Cup, Ledecká placed second behind Patrizia Kummer in the first parallel slalom event in Bad Gastein and third in the second event. She subsequently won gold at Rogla in the parallel giant slalom event at the same competition, becoming the first Czech to do so.[10] In doing so, she also became just the third Czech to win any World Cup snowboarding event.[11]

Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, The Daily Telegraph's Andrew Lawton mentioned Ledecká as the "one to watch" in the women's snowboarding competition.[10] She was among the Czech athletes most expected to win a medal at the games, along with Martina Sáblíková, Gabriela Soukalová and fellow snowboarder Eva Samková.[12] After she had finished ninth in qualifying for the alpine skiing event at the Winter Olympics, the Czech Ski Association attempted to register her as a competitor, however the FIS rejected the proposal, reiterating that only eight Czechs could compete.[7][13]

Ledecká made her Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics on 19 February 2014 in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event. She reached the quarter final stage before being eliminated by Patrizia Kummer, who went on to win the gold medal in the event. Ledecká was classified as seventh overall.[14]

Ledecká has combined her snowboarding career with competing in alpine skiing: she made her debut on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in February 2016, finishing 24th in her first race, the Kandahar downhill in Garmisch.[15] She went on to score points in four of her first five World Cup races, competing in the downhill and Super-G disciplines.[2] In 2017 she became the first sportsperson to compete in World Championships in both skiing and snowboarding, taking a gold in the parallel giant slalom and a silver in the parallel slalom at the Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, and scoring top 30 finishes in the downhill, super-G and alpine combined at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.[1]

Ledecká made her Olympic debut in alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics, while also being qualified for alpine snowboarding. She won the gold medal in super-G in alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics in a historic upset. She was visibly shocked after finishing 0.01 seconds ahead of the 2014 Olympics defending gold medalist Anna Veith, who had already been proclaimed the winner by many media outlets.[16][17] Ledecká was ranked 49th in the event prior to the Olympics and had never medalled in any World Cup level international skiing event.[18] To make the feat even more surprising to reporters, she was rumored to be allegedly racing on skis borrowed from Mikaela Shiffrin (both racers are sponsored by Atomic). She refused to remove her goggles for the post-victory press conference, insisting that this is her trademark (which is true), and when pressed by reporters she cleverly stated that she had skipped wearing makeup as she had not expected to win the event.[19] Her snowboard coach, American Justin Reiter, arrived at the start of the Ladies PGS event with his reversible Czech team jacket confidently already turned gold side out. After victory in the parallel giant slalom she became the first ever female athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in two different disciplines during the same Winter Olympics[20] (Anfisa Reztsova had previously won gold in different disciplines but not at the same Olympics: cross country skiing in 1988 and biathlon in 1992 and 1994).[21] Ledecká was chosen as the flag bearer for the Czech Republic at the closing ceremony.[22]

In the 2018–19 Alpine Ski World Cup, Ledecká finished 24th in the downhill standings and 28th in super-G. In December 2019, Ledecká scored her first win on the Alpine Ski World Cup in a downhill at Lake Louise, eclipsing her previous personal best World Cup downhill result of seventh at the same venue two years previously.[23]

World Cup results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).[24]

Snowboarding

Season titles
  • 7 titles – (4 parallel overall, 3 parallel giant slalom)
Season Discipline
2016Parallel overall
Parallel giant slalom
2017Parallel overall
2018Parallel overall
Parallel giant slalom
2019Parallel overall
Parallel giant slalom

Season standings
Season  Age  Parallel
overall		 Parallel
slalom		 Parallel
giant slalom
201317151615
201418223
201519382
201620151
201721123
2018221241
2019231131
20202417817

Race podiums
  • 17 wins – (15 PGS, 2 PSL)
  • 28 podiums – (22 PGS, 6 PSL)
Season Date Location Discipline Place
2013–1410 January 2014 Bad Gastein, AustriaParallel slalom2nd
12 January 2014Parallel slalom3rd
18 January 2014 Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 1st
2014–159 January 2015 Bad Gastein, AustriaParallel slalom1st
7 February 2015 Sudelfeld, GermanyParallel giant slalom1st
28 February 2015 Asahikawa, JapanParallel giant slalom3rd
2015–1612 December 2015 Carezza, ItalyParallel giant slalom1st
23 January 2016 Rogla, SloveniaParallel giant slalom1st
30 January 2016 Moscow, RussiaParallel slalom3rd
27 February 2016 Kayseri, TurkeyParallel giant slalom1st
2016–1715 December 2016 Carezza, ItalyParallel giant slalom2nd
17 December 2016 Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyParallel slalom1st
28 January 2017 Rogla, SloveniaParallel giant slalom1st
5 March 2017 Kayseri, TurkeyParallel giant slalom1st
18 March 2017 Winterberg, GermanyParallel slalom2nd
2017–1814 December 2017 Carezza, ItalyParallel giant slalom1st
15 December 2017 Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyParallel giant slalom1st
5 January 2018 Lackenhof, AustriaParallel giant slalom1st
20 January 2018 Rogla, SloveniaParallel giant slalom1st
26 January 2018 Bansko, BulgariaParallel giant slalom1st
3 March 2018 Kayseri, TurkeyParallel giant slalom2nd
10 March 2018   Scuol, SwitzerlandParallel giant slalom1st
2018–1913 December 2018 Carezza, ItalyParallel giant slalom2nd
15 December 2018 Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyParallel giant slalom1st
16 February 2019 Pyeongchang, South KoreaParallel giant slalom1st
17 February 2019Parallel giant slalom3rd
23 February 2019 Secret Garden, ChinaParallel giant slalom2nd
9 March 2019 Scuol, SwitzerlandParallel giant slalom2nd

Alpine skiing

Season standings
Season  Age  Overall Super-G Downhill Combined
201620934237-
201721773834-
201822614722-
201923542824-
202024102123

Race podiums
Season Date Location Discipline Place
2019–206 December 2019 Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill1st
8 February 2020 Garmisch Partenkirchen, GermanyDownhill3rd
23 February 2020 Crans-Montana, SwitzerlandCombined3rd

Olympic results
  • 2 medals – (2 golds)

Snowboarding
  • 1 medal – (1 gold)
Year  Age  Parallel
slalom		 Parallel
giant slalom
2014 Sochi1867
2018 Pyeongchang22N/A1

Alpine skiing
  • 1 medal – (1 gold)
Year  Age  Giant slalom Super-G
2018 Pyeongchang22231

World Championships results

Snowboarding
  • 3 medals – (2 gold, 1 silver)
Year  Age  Parallel
 slalom 		 Parallel
giant slalom
2011 La Molina154033
2013 Stoneham171716
2015 Kreischberg1915
2017 Sierra Nevada2121

Alpine skiing
Year  Age  Downhill Super-G Giant slalom Slalom Combined
   2017 St. Moritz21212937—20
2019 Åre231727——15
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gollark: It may not be a C++-knowledge thing as much as an understanding-and-dealing-with-algorithms-generally thing.
gollark: `0x67be222`
gollark: If they can't actually install anything properly for whatever stupid reason it beats the alternative.
gollark: You could install Linux on a USB and run it off that without touching the internal drive probably.

See also

References
  1. Clarey, Christopher (27 November 2017). "Skiing or Snowboarding? Ester Ledecka Chose Both". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  2. Dampf, Andrew (22 February 2016). "Czech athlete transitions from snowboard to ski at World Cup". CTV News. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  3. "Dcera Janka Ledeckého debutovala ve Světovém poháru ve snowboardingu 13. místem". Hospodářské noviny (in Czech). 21 December 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  4. Grim, Filip (3 February 2014). "Od sněhuláků přes zapomenuté lyže. Jak Ledecká startovala kariéru". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  5. Jakoubek, Jiří (18 January 2014). "Za odměnu mám vafle, smála se po prvním triumfu v SP Ledecká". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  6. "Ester Ledecká: how did she DO that?!". Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  7. David, Jan (7 February 2014). "Na noc si dávám zmrzlinu, ale vždycky! směje se Ledecká". Metro Praha (in Czech). Prague: MAFRA. p. 16.
  8. "Ledecka and Baumeister win parallel slalom at Junior World Champs". FIS. 7 March 2013. Archived from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  9. Beránek, Jaroslav; Kučerová, Martina (18 December 2013). "Neporazitelná běžkyně Hejnová vyhrála i souboj o titul Sportovec roku". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  10. Lawton, Andrew (5 February 2014). "Winter Olympics 2014: Blagger's guide to snowboarding". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  11. "Career's first for Ledecka and Mathies in Rogla PGS | First Czech win on Alpine Snowboard World Cup tour | Exciting race for Crystal Globes". rogla.eu. Archived from the original on 7 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  12. "Czech Republic names 85 athletes to Sochi Olympic team". AP. Sports Illustrated. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  13. Augustin, Marek (1 February 2014). "Ledecká bude v Soči závodit jen na snowboardu, start v lyžování neprošel". Czech Radio (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  14. Grim, Filip (19 February 2014). "Desítka, jak jsem plánovala, chválila se Ledecká po olympijském debutu". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  15. "Ester Ledecka surprises ski world". International Ski Federation. 9 February 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  16. Olympics Prime Time. National Broadcasting Company (USA). 16 February 2018. NBC.
  17. Olympics Prime Time. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 16 February 2018. CBC.
  18. Chappell, Bill (17 February 2018). "'This Must Be Some Mistake,' Says Snowboarder After Winning Olympic Gold In Skiing". NPR.org. NPR. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  19. Sugar, Jenny (18 February 2018). "Ester Ledecka Won Gold in the Super-G — and She Was Wearing Mikaela Shiffrin's Skis!". PopSugar.
  20. "Ester Ledecka: Two sports, two golds, same Olympics". BBC. 24 February 2018.
  21. McGee, Paul (27 July 2019). "Ester Ledecká interview". icetrail.com. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  22. "Olympiáda skončila, za účasti Ivanky Trumpové i generála, který nechal potopit jihokorejskou loď". lidovky.cz (in Czech). 25 February 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  23. Hodgetts, Rob (7 December 2019). "Dual Olympic champion Ester Ledecka wins first World Cup skiing race". cnn.com. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  24. "Ester Ledecka". FIS-Ski. International Ski Federation. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
Awards
Preceded by
Karolína Erbanová		 Czech Junior Athlete of the Year
2013
2015 (with Jiří Janošek)		 Succeeded by
Anežka Drahotová
Preceded by
Gabriela Koukalová		 Czech Athlete of the Year
2018		 Succeeded by
Lukáš Krpálek
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