Saalbach (Austria) (AFP) – Ester Ledecka’s bid to get Olympic chiefs to reschedule the programme for next year’s Winter Games to allow her to compete in both alpine skiing and snowboarding races received a massive boost when she took downhill bronze in the World Ski Championships on Saturday.
Ledecka roared through the finish line in Saalbach just two-hundredths of a second off American Breezy Johnson, with Austria’s Mirjam Puchner taking silver. It was the Czech racer’s first world medal after finishing fourth in both the downhill and super-G at the Cortina worlds in 2021 after a series of lower finishing spots in the 2017 and 2019 editions. “Not bad for a snowboarder!” she said.
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It is fair to say that Ledecka is one of a kind when it comes to winter sports. The now 29-year-old stunned the skiing world by winning super-G gold at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. She famously refused to take her goggles off in her post-super-G race press conference because she hadn’t put any make-up on as she didn’t expect to be sat on the dais. Ledecka went on to trade skis — borrowed from Mikaela Shiffrin — for a snowboard and win snowboard parallel giant slalom there a week later, repeating the latter feat at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
But there is a clash of dates in Cortina, with the snowboarding parallel giant slalom and the women’s skiing downhill scheduled for the same day, in different resorts and just hours apart.
– Appeal with IOC –
Ledecka has lodged an appeal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in an effort to shift the schedule to enable her to compete in both. “I kind of helped myself,” Ledecka said of her bronze in Saalbach. “I hope they were watching. I hope they would give me a chance to try for it in Cortina as well because I would really be very honoured and happy if I could put on this show, this unique show, and be able to race on skis and the snowboard as well. It’s my biggest dream and I really believe that I belong in the best in the world in both sports. And I wish I had the chance to prove it.”
Ledecka added that it was a “great thing that finally we were able to get the podium,” joking that there was a “little bit” of internal competition between her skiing and snowboarding personas. “I have much more achievement so far on snowboard,” she said. “But the last few years, I was more skiing so I’m getting a little bit better there too. I believe I’m quite a decent skier and also a snowboarder! So this is good for me, but it also takes a lot of work so I need to work on my snowboard skills right now.”
“From tomorrow, I’m again a snowboarder,” with the world snowboarding championships scheduled for March 16-30 in Engadin, Switzerland.
© 2024 AFP
