One week after surprising the world with the aid of triumphing a gold medal in Alpine skiing, Ester Ledecka strapped back right into a snowboard and won a gold medal in her number one recreation. Ledecka, the No. 1 ranked athlete in girls’ parallel giant slalom skiing, certified for the finals of that occasion with the fastest time, then gained four consecutive head-to-head races to say her second gold medal of the Pyeongchang Olympics. Along the way, the Czech snowboarder dueled — and defeated — reigning Olympic champion Patrizia Kummer of Switzerland and a couple of Germans ranked No. 2 and 3 inside the world.
With the win, Ledecka is the first lady to win gold medals in two unique sports activities at the same Winter Olympics. She’s also the 0.33 athlete overall to perform the feat and the first seeing that 1928. (A Norwegian man gained gold in each go-USA skiing, and Nordic blended that 12 months.) Her first victory got here one week ago inside the exquisite-G Alpine snowboarding occasion. Ledecka, ranked 43rd in the international in brilliant-G,
stunned every person — the announcers, her competitors, even herself. The race had already been referred to as while Ledecka, the 26th skier to run, bombed down the path and completed a time 0.01 seconds faster than protecting Olympic champion, Anna Veith. Ledecka became so amazed to peer herself inside the lead that she needed to be instructed by a cameraman to change into prevailing the event. Shortly after, she showed up to the press convention wearing goggles because in her phrases,
“I turned into not organized to be at this ceremony, and I don’t have any make-up.” That becomes the closing Alpine snowboarding event that Ledecka participated in at those Olympics. She decided no longer to compete in downhill — an event she’s better at than notable-G — so that she may want recognition on snowboarding. That’s because Ledecka became coming in because of the gold medal favorite in giant parallel slalom. (She has gained Alpine snowboarding’s regular World Cup identify seasons in a row and is in the role to win it again this year. She’s additionally the reigning world champion in PGS.)
Sure sufficient, the day started with Ledecka dominating the qualifying spherical. She completed more than one 2d ahead of everybody else, which gave her the No. 1 seed for the elimination rounds. The most significant advantage of getting that No. 1 seed is that it allowed Ledecka to select which direction she desired to apply for each warmth race. (Parallel large slalom capabilities facet-with the aid of-facet courses that the athlete’s race down.) Ledecka turned to choose the faster purple route for each of her races, though she may not have even needed that greater area. Her face changed into on every other degree all through the whole event.
