Ester Ledecká

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Ester Ledecká
Ledecká in 2017
Personal information
Born (1995-03-23) 23 March 1995 (age 29)
Prague, 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
Olympic finals
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
Highest world ranking
Medal record
Representing  Czech Republic
Women's snowboarding
International snowboarding competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 2 0 0
World Championships 2 1 0
Junior World Championships 2 0 0
Total 6 1 0
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Pyeongchang Parallel giant slalom
Gold medal – first place 2022 Beijing Parallel giant slalom
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Kreischberg Parallel slalom
Gold medal – first place 2017 Sierra Nevada Parallel giant slalom
Silver medal – second place 2017 Sierra Nevada Parallel slalom
Junior World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2013 Erzurum Parallel slalom
Gold medal – first place 2013 Erzurum Parallel giant slalom
European Youth Olympic Festival
Gold medal – first place 2011 Liberec Parallel 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
Gold medal – first place 2018 Pyeongchang Super-G
Ledecká with Martina Sáblíková (left) at Old Town Square in Prague after returning from the 2018 Winter Olympics

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 not only compete in the Winter Olympics using two different types of equipment (skis and snowboard) but to go further and win two gold medals and do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the second woman to win an 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.

Early life[edit]

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 maternal grandfather is a 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," Ledecká 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[edit]

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 before 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 downhill at Lake Louise, eclipsing her previous personal best World Cup downhill result of seventh at the same venue two years previously.[23] In December 2020, she won her first World Cup Super-G race.[24]

Ledecká continued to split her time between snowboarding and Alpine skiing, finishing second in World Cup Alpine skiing in the downhill for the 2020 season and third for the 2022 season, as well as third in the combined in 2020, the last season it has been contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2022 Winter Olympics, Ledecká repeated as the snowboarding gold medalist in parallel giant slalom, while in Alpine skiing she finished fifth in super-G and fourth in combined. However, she was injured while training during the summer of 2022 and targeted a possible return during February 2023.[25] Ultimately, she was unable to return for the Alpine skiing world championships in February[26] but made it back for the final snowboarding races in March at Berchtesgaden, where she won the women's parallel slalom for her only win of the season.[27]

World Cup results[edit]

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).[28]

Snowboarding[edit]

Season titles[edit]

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

Season standings[edit]

Season  Age  Parallel
overall 		Parallel
slalom 		Parallel
giant slalom
2013 17 15 16 15
2014 18 2 2 3
2015 19 3 8 2
2016 20 1 5 1
2017 21 1 2 3
2018 22 1 24 1
2019 23 1 13 1
2020 24 17 8 17
2021 25 23 — 13
2022 26 15 — 12
2023 27 18 15 20
2024 28 13 3 —

Race podiums[edit]

  • 24 wins – (18 PGS, 6 PSL)
  • 38 podiums – (27 PGS, 11 PSL)
Season Date Location Discipline Place
2013–14 10 January 2014 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Parallel slalom 2nd
12 January 2014 Parallel slalom 3rd
18 January 2014 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia  Parallel giant slalom  1st
2014–15 9 January 2015 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Parallel slalom 1st
7 February 2015 Germany Sudelfeld, Germany Parallel giant slalom 1st
28 February 2015 Japan Asahikawa, Japan Parallel giant slalom 3rd
2015–16 12 December 2015 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
23 January 2016 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 1st
30 January 2016 Russia Moscow, Russia Parallel slalom 3rd
27 February 2016 Turkey Kayseri, Turkey Parallel giant slalom 1st
2016–17 15 December 2016 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel giant slalom 2nd
17 December 2016 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Parallel slalom 1st
28 January 2017 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 1st
5 March 2017 Turkey Kayseri, Turkey Parallel giant slalom 1st
18 March 2017 Germany Winterberg, Germany Parallel slalom 2nd
2017–18 14 December 2017 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
15 December 2017 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
5 January 2018 Austria Lackenhof, Austria Parallel giant slalom 1st
20 January 2018 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 1st
26 January 2018 Bulgaria Bansko, Bulgaria Parallel giant slalom 1st
3 March 2018 Turkey Kayseri, Turkey Parallel giant slalom 2nd
10 March 2018  Switzerland  Scuol, Switzerland Parallel giant slalom 1st
2018–19 13 December 2018 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel giant slalom 2nd
15 December 2018 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
16 February 2019 South Korea Pyeongchang, South Korea Parallel giant slalom 1st
17 February 2019 Parallel giant slalom 3rd
23 February 2019 China Secret Garden, China Parallel giant slalom 2nd
9 March 2019 Switzerland Scuol, Switzerland Parallel giant slalom 2nd
2019–20 14 January 2020 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Parallel slalom 2nd
18 January 2020 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 1st
2020–21 12 December 2020 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
2021–22 16 December 2021 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel giant slalom 2nd
18 December 2021 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Parallel giant slalom 1st
2022–23 15 March 2023 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel giant slalom 2nd
18 March 2023 Germany Berchtesgaden, Germany Parallel slalom 1st
2023–24 20 January 2024 Bulgaria Pamporovo, Bulgaria Parallel slalom 1st
21 January 2024 Parallel slalom 1st
9 March 2024 Germany Winterberg, Germany Parallel slalom 1st

Alpine skiing[edit]

Season standings[edit]

Season  Age  Overall Super-G Downhill Combined
2016 20 93 42 37 —
2017 21 77 38 34 —
2018 22 61 47 22 —
2019 23 54 28 24 —
2020 24 10 21 2 3
2021 25 13 5 8 —
2022 26 17 23 3 —
2023 27 injured, did not compete in alpine skiing
2024 28 23 6 23 —

Race podiums[edit]

Season Date Location Discipline Place
2019–20 6 December 2019 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 1st
8 February 2020 Germany Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany Downhill 3rd
23 February 2020 Switzerland Crans-Montana, Switzerland Combined 3rd
2020–21 20 December 2020 France Val-d'Isère, France Super G 1st
22 January 2021 Switzerland Crans-Montana, Switzerland Downhill 2nd
2021–22 22 January 2022 Italy Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Downhill 3rd
26 February 2022 Switzerland Crans-Montana, Switzerland Downhill 1st
27 February 2022 Downhill 2nd
2023–24 3 March 2024 Norway Kvitfjell, Norway Super G 3rd
22 March 2024 Austria Saalbach, Austria Super G 1st

Olympic results[edit]

  • 3 medals – (3 golds)

Snowboarding[edit]

  • 2 medals – (2 golds)
Year  Age  Parallel
slalom 		Parallel
giant slalom
Russia 2014 Sochi 18 6 7
South Korea 2018 Pyeongchang 22 — 1
China 2022 Beijing 26 — 1

Alpine skiing[edit]

  • 1 medal – (1 gold)
Year  Age  Giant slalom Super-G Downhill Combined
South Korea 2018 Pyeongchang 22 23 1 — —
China 2022 Beijing 26 — 5 27 4

World Championships results[edit]

Snowboarding[edit]

  • 3 medals – (2 gold, 1 silver)
Year  Age  Parallel
 slalom  		Parallel
giant slalom
Spain 2011 La Molina 15 40 33
Canada 2013 Stoneham 17 17 16
Austria 2015 Kreischberg 19 1 5
Spain 2017 Sierra Nevada 21 2 1

Alpine skiing[edit]

Year  Age  Downhill Super-G Giant slalom Slalom Combined
 Switzerland  2017 St. Moritz 21 21 29 37 — 20
Sweden 2019 Åre 23 17 27 — — 15
Italy 2021 Cortina 25 4 4 — — 8

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Clarey, Christopher (27 November 2017). "Skiing or Snowboarding? Ester Ledecka Chose Both". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d Dampf, Andrew (22 February 2016). "Czech athlete transitions from snowboard to ski at World Cup". CTV News. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  3. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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 adds World Cup super-G win to surprise Olympic title". OlympicTalk | NBC Sports. Associated Press. 20 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  25. ^ "Ester Ledecka postpones start of the season until 2023". fis-ski.com. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  26. ^ OlympicTalk (23 January 2023). "Ester Ledecka to miss Alpine Skiing world championships". NBC Sports. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  27. ^ Sportsbeat (18 March 2023). "ESTER LEDECKA ROARS BACK TO PARALLEL SLALOM VICTORY IN BERCHTESGADEN, OBMANN LEADS AUSTRIAN ONE-TWO". Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  28. ^ "Ester Ledecka". FIS-Ski. International Ski Federation. Retrieved 15 January 2017.

External links[edit]

Awards
Preceded by Czech Junior Athlete of the Year
2013
2015 (with Jiří Janošek) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Czech Athlete of the Year
2018
2022 		Succeeded by
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