Lindsey fails to medal in Super-G, now eyes downhill
GETTY —Associated Press
JEONGSEON, South Korea — Lindsey Vonn was doing everything right in her quest to become the oldest woman to win an Olympic Alpine medal, but one wide turn sent her skidding off the podium — for now.
The first racer out of the starting gate, 33-year-old Vonn had a fast run going before taking too wide a turn near the bottom. She finished in a tie for sixth.
“I thought it was either going to be really great or really bad,” Vonn said. “And it didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter so I did the best that I could.
“Just made one mistake, and that cost me a medal.”
Vonn will have another shot to medal in the downhill, which would make Olympic history.
But Saturday, it was Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic who shocked the world.
Ledecka stepped out of her snowboard long enough to click into her skis and become an Olympic gold medalist.
Even the 22-year-old, who dabbles in both realms, can’t quite believe it.
Ledecka made a stunning run from back in the pack to win the super-G title, taking advantage of Vonn’s mistake.
“Until today, I thought I am a better snowboarder,” Ledecka said.
The 26th racer to take the course, Ledecka shredded her way through it in a time of 1 minute, 21.11 seconds. And she wasn’t even racing with her own equipment. U.S. phe- nom Mikaela Shiffrin bowed out of the Super-G race be- cause of weather delays and let Ledecka borrow her skis.
Defending champion Anna Veith of Austria earned the silver, finishing 0.01 seconds back, and Tina Weirather OA Russia France Sweden Italy Switzerland Czech Republic China South Korea Australia Finland Slovakia Spain Belarus Slovenia Britain Liechtenstein Kazakhstan of Liechtenstein captured bronze.
Ledecka is far from finished at the Olympics. She is trying to talk her coaches into letting her compete in the Olympic downhill on Wednesday, before she grabs her snowboard for Thursday’s qualifying in the parallel giant slalom. The final is Saturday.
“I was probably the only snowboarder on site,” Ledecka said. “All the other girls didn’t risk a lot. There must be a lot of pressure on them. I was just trying to do my best run.”
Ledecka’s run shocked even her. Shortly after finishing and seeing her time, she asked, “How did that happen?” Wonderful question.
Even better may be this: Is she now a snowboarder or an Alpine skier?
She won the parallel giant slalom at the world snowboard championships last March.
“That’s so impressive,” skier Michelle Gisin of Switzerland said. “Better stay with us and don’t go snowboarding. I know that she can take a lot of risks.”
Ever think possible?
“I thought this will come much later on in my career,” Ledecka said. “But this is great, if it can happen like that.”
Turns out, Ledecka’s first sport was hockey . She then started skiing at the age of 4 before switching to freestyle snowboarding and eventually Alpine snowboarding and is now back to skis. Throughout her snowboarding career, she’s been skiing on her off days.
“I am so surprised about all of it,” Ledecka said. “I’m really trying to win and do a good run every time, but I didn’t really realize that this really can happen.” —Staff & Wire this was