Snowboard world champion Ester Ledecka is responsible for one of the biggest sensations in the history of the Olympic Winter Games: The Czech skier turns the ski world upside down and becomes Olympic champion in the Super-G class.
When she had succeeded in perhaps the biggest sensation in the history of the Olympic Winter Games, Ester Ledecka stood in the finish area at the foot of Mount Gariwang and did not understand anything at all. Around them, the audience and the competitors screamed out – bewilderment spread. And Ledecka, starting number 26, stared at the scoreboard for seconds: The snowboard world champion, yes, the snowboard world champion had just won gold in the super-G of the alpine ski racers. By the way, the first one at winter games for the Czech Republic.
The ski world has been upside down since Saturday.”I was very surprised. I thought the time was wrong, they’ll correct it in a few seconds,”Ledecka said after her sensational ride,” but I was still amazed at Eurosport. Then she added:”It was my dream, and I worked towards it. 0.01 seconds, one hundredth, was the sensational winner ahead of Anna Veith (Austria), who had already been celebrated as two-time Olympic champion, 0.11 seconds ahead of Tina Weirather (Liechtenstein/0.11).
Actually, Ledecka should not have become Olympic champion until next Thursday. With the snowboarders, in the parallel giant slalom. She is the world champion in this discipline and practically invincible. The fact that the 22-year-old lady from Prague is also competing in the alpine region is certainly not new.
Ledecka competed in the World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the first time in February 2016, and won the World Cup 2017 in St. Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Moritz, always with the goal of competing in both sports at the Olympics in Pyeongchang. Her best World Cup ranking was a seventh place finish in the November downhill at Lake Louise. She finished 22nd in the Olympic giant slalom (the Alpine slalom) on Thursday.
No one had seen this victory coming. Anna Veith, née Fenninger, had even already been congratulated by IOC President Thomas Bach in the finish area, it would have been a fairytale story after the Austrian had almost had to end her career after a serious knee injury in October 2015. And then this:”A crazy race. I would have taken any medal. Thus, with the one hundredth, it is somewhat different from the emotions. I’m happy about silver,”said Veith.
Lindsey Vonn (USA/0.38) was sixth without a medal, and Viktoria Rebensburg (Kreuth/0.51) was tenth. Kira Weidle (Starnberg) fell. Two days after her disappointing fourth place in the giant slalom, Rebensburg was satisfied with her performance, even though she missed a better ranking due to an unnecessary slip-up. I’m good at this. I’ve got to the point of putting everything into practice, except for the left turn down there,”she said.
Vonn, on the other hand, who was a contender for the medal, was served after her first attempt to win her second gold medal at the Olympic Games eight years after Vancouver. Shortly before the finish, the American, as a “test pilot” with start number one, almost flew out of the course:”Today everything was possible, but I made a small mistake and lost a lot of time. I fought anyway. I’m sure I’m frustrated, but not sad. I still have options.”
Ledecka also has possibilities: next Wednesday. In the descent. The female ski racer.