Ledeckas quest for Olympic snowboarding 3-peat grinds to a halt

LIVIGNO, Italy — Ester Ledecka’s quest to become the first snowboarder to win a gold medal in three straight Olympics came to a surprisingly early end Sunday.

The Czech snowboarder lost her quarterfinal race in the sport’s parallel giant slalom by 0.06 seconds to Austria’s Sabine Payer.

The gold medal went to another Czech racer, Zuzana Maderova, a 22-year-old with no World Cup wins who opened a gap on the slip-sliding Payer and blew her away by 0.83 seconds in the gold medal race for her first victory in a major event.

“I can’t believe it now,” Maderova said, “but I’m an Olympic champion.”

The only repeat on this day belonged to Austria’s Benjamin Karl, who won his second straight title then celebrated by stripping off his shirt and doing a huge weightlifter flex before falling, bare-chested, into the snow.

Ledecka was a spectator for all of it after coming into the Milan Cortina Games as a big favorite for gold. She hadn’t lost a PGS World Cup race in almost two years and hadn’t missed a podium in five.

“Suddenly, I made a mistake in the quarterfinals,” said Ledecka, who skittered and put her hand down at the sixth gate in the quarterfinal, costing her precious time and a chance at another title. “I did my best. It’s what can happen in this sport.”

Asked what she would’ve done differently, Ledecka focused on her form.

“I would do the toe side much better. I would probably put my inner shoulder up and do it better,” she said.

She dominated through the qualifying heats, finishing her two time trials 0.69 seconds faster than the next-best racer to draw top seeding in the 16-woman bracket. That second-place racer was Maderova, and in a sign of how the Czech Republic dominates this sport right now, nobody else was within 1.39 seconds of her.

But in the second round of head-to-head action, Ledecka was done. Payer bolted out to an early lead, carved tight lines between the gates and never trailed. She adds this silver medal to two wins on the World Cup circuit this season.

For Maderova, win No. 1 came at the very best place — the Olympics on a bright, sunny day at Livigno Snow Park.

Ledecka made history in 2018 when she became the first athlete to win both a snowboard race and one on skis at the same Olympics. Her Alpine skiing super-G win was considered a shocker, but everyone expected her to dominate in her “better” sport, the PGS, and she did.

She defended the snowboarding title in China four years ago.

This year, she was hoping to get wins in both the Alpine women’s downhill and PGS, but they were scheduled on the same day. She chose snowboard and ended up with neither title — her loss coming a couple of hours after Lindsey Vonn’s wipeout on the downhill course.

Ledecka is scheduled to race in skiing’s super-G on Thursday.

She has raced almost exclusively on skis in the leadup to the Olympics this season, with nine Alpine races, which netted one podium, compared to only one snowboard event, which she won.

Ledecka’s loss gives Austria’s Anna Gasser a chance to become the first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic titles. Gasser takes the hill in big air qualifying later Sunday. Also trying for a three-peat is Chloe Kim. Her halfpipe contest starts Wednesday.

Payer, who raced her way to the silver medal, lost to Maderova by 0.83 seconds in the final, but will go down as the woman who took down this sport’s GOAT.

“The win against Ester, I think it was not expected, I would say,” Payer said. “I knew I had to risk everything and go all-in. Mistakes can happen. I think she might have helped me a bit. I don’t know how her run was, but I’m really, really happy.”