Dual Olympic champion Ester Ledecka wins first World Cup skiing race
She stunned the world with gold medals in two different sports at the Winter Olympics, but now Ester Ledecka has clinched her first World Cup ski racing title.
The 24-year-old snowboarder and skier from the Czech Republic stormed to victory in a downhill at Lake Louise, Canada for her first skiing victory since Pyeongchang in 2018.
At the Olympics, Ledecka pulled off a shock victory in the super-G skiing event before clinching gold in her favoured snowboarding parallel giant slalom to become the first athlete to win gold in two different disciplines at the same Games.
In scenes reminiscent of her Olympic super-G victory, Ledecka set the fastest time from starting number 26 and shocked even herself to see the first place posted on the scoreboard. She beat Swiss Corinne Suter by 0.35 seconds with Austrian Stephanie Venier third in Canada.
“I was a little bit thinking it was some mistake, but it’s OK. I’m maybe getting used to it,” Ledecka said.
Ledecka’s previous best result in a World Cup downhill was seventh in Lake Louise in 2017. She finished 24th in last season’s World Cup downhill standings and 28th in super-G.
Ledecka has won 17 snowboard World Cup races and clinched seven season titles.
American star Mikaela Shiffrin finished 10th in Lake Louise as she chases a 63rd career World Cup win.
Slalom specialist Shiffrin is tied with Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell in fourth on the all-time list of winners behind the retired trio of Marcel Hirscher (67), Lindsey Vonn (82) and Ingemar Stenmark (86).
