Winter Olympics 2022: the crazy story of Ester Ledecka, expected on skis and still crowned in snowboarding

As skilled on spatulas as on a board, Ester Ledecka never ceases to impress.

This Tuesday, she won her second Olympic title in parallel giant snowboarding, her favorite discipline, flying over the competition throughout the day.

The Czech will only have three days to recover from her victory: Friday, she puts into play her gold medal in the super-G… in alpine skiing.

It's a #Gold medal for Ester Ledecka in the #Snowboard Women's Parallel Giant Slalom Big Final!

Her incredible Olympic story continues, 4 years after winning two golds, in #Snowboard and #AlpineSkiing#Beijing2022

— Olympics (@Olympics) February 8, 2022

The huge surprise of 2018

In 2018, Ledecka was one of the revelations and stars of the Games, at 22 years old.

If her coronation in parallel slalom was expected, as she flew over the discipline at the time (four big crystal globes between 2016 and 2019), no one had seen her feat in super-G coming, when she was not never before climbed on the slightest podium of the World Cup.

To participate in the event, she even had to borrow her skis from the superstar of the discipline, the American Mikaela Shiffrin.

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Since then, the record of the versatile Czech has grown considerably, with various world podiums in Super-G, but only one victory.

On the other hand, she was formidable in the downhill, where she should also try to get a medal next Tuesday.

What complicates her schedule a little more, which does not seem to frighten her: before the Games, she calmly affirmed that she wanted to go for "a triple or quadruple".

No Olympic obsession

If she built her popularity on her Olympic exploits, Ledecka did not make an obsession of it.

Before the competition, she had forbidden those around her to pronounce the word "Olympic", under penalty of having to pay 10€ in a kitty.

“Everyone gets so excited about it that they think it's something really special, even for me.

But that's just another race!

I'm still the same, I take the descents hard and I like it.

But hopefully I've learned some things since 2018 and maybe I'm stronger and faster…”

It is not its parallel snowboard competitors who will say the opposite.

While she had taken a year off from the discipline before this winter to devote herself to skiing, she disgusted all her opponents, often pushed to fault by her very fast starts, like the Austrian Daniela Ulbing .

Full of confidence, the Czech will quickly have to abandon her board: her skis are waiting for her.