Ledecka’s ‘great Olympic story’ stumbles on downhill DNS | The Express Tribune

PRAGUE:

Like in Beijing in 2022, three-time Olympic champion Ester Ledecka calls next year’s Olympic Games “a friendly” to ease the pressure, despite a rather unfriendly schedule thwarting her medal hopes.

The 30-year-old Czech stunned the world by winning both the skiing super-G and the snowboarding parallel giant slalom at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

She won another Olympic snowboarding parallel giant slalom at Beijing in 2022, and took the bronze medal in downhill at the 2024 Alpine skiing world championships.

But a schedule clash at next year’s Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics prevents her from competing in these two events.

“I’m just sad that we won’t get the chance,” Ledecka told reporters in Prague.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to compete and maybe this will be the last chance to do two sports at the Games,” she added.

The downhill in Cortina is scheduled for 11:30 am on February 8, sandwiched between the snowboarding parallel giant slalom qualification and finals in Livigno, some 150 kilometres (100 miles) from Cortina.

Following lengthy diplomatic efforts, the Czech Olympic Committee said on Monday the programme would not change and that Ledecka has to choose.

“I know it’s not easy to coordinate a friendly, but I’m also the only athlete qualified for the Olympic Games in two sports for the third time in a row,” Ledecka said.

“So I was hoping they would take this into account. But they didn’t,” she added.

“Obviously the International Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t want those great Olympic stories as much as it says.”

The Belmondo option

Admitting she has “cried over this a few times”, Ledecka has not lost her sense of humour as she ponders the most unlikely options.

“I’m clutching at straws. For the first time ever, I will hope it will rain or snow for the downhill,” she said.

While a helicopter transfer, proposed by International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) head Johan Eliasch, looks unlikely, Ledecka is contemplating a stunt in the style of French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.

“I will finish the downhill, take off the skis, grab a ladder hanging down the helicopter with one hand, carrying my snowboard under the other arm, and fly over the mountains, and then they will drop me and I will win the snowboard race,” she said.

“That’s my idea, but I’m not sure it will happen.”

‘Making history’

If it does not happen, Ledecka will record a downhill DNS as she said she would give priority to the snowboard.

“For me, it is far more valuable to be the only athlete competing in two sports at the Olympics than to win the downhill,” Ledecka said.

“There is a new downhill champion every four years,” she added. “And I want to make history.”

Ledecka said she wanted to do the downhill training at Cortina to test the piste on which she will later compete in the super-G.

She added she had sent several letters to the IOC and led talks with IOC officials, proposing an alternative piste in Cortina for the snowboard race for instance.

But it did not work.

“Maybe if I were Italian, American or Austrian… I am proud to be Czech, but I don’t think it’s an advantage now,” she said.

“But still, it will be a nice story even if I’m just there and compete in two sports. It will be OK. And of course we will fight hard.”