Ledecka stuns in Super-G win
Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic made a stunning run from back in the pack to take the Olympic super-G title today, with a mistake costing Lindsey Vonn a spot on the podium on the mountain in Jeongseon, South Korea.
Ledecka, the 26th racer to take the course, blazed to a time of 1 minute, 21.11 seconds. Defending champion Anna Veith of Austria earned the silver, finishing 0.01 seconds back, and Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein captured bronze.
Ledecka’s run shocked even the 22-year-old, who also is a snowboarder. 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,” Michelle Gisin of Switzerland said. “Better stay with us and don’t go snowboarding. I know that she can take a lot of risks.”
Vonn had a fast run going before going too wide on a turn near the bottom. She finished in a tie for sixth.
“It’s definitely shocking. I wish I had so much athleticism as she has and hop from sport to sport,” Vonn said of Ledecka. “I feel like in the Olympics a lot of weird things happen.”
Vonn will have another shot to medal in the downhill.
At age 33, she is trying to become the oldest woman to win an Olympic Alpine medal. She won bronze in the super-G at the 2010 Vancouver Games — to go with her downhill gold — but missed the 2014 Sochi Olympics after surgery on her right knee.
Flying high again
Robert Johansson carried his hot form into the men’s large hill ski jumping final.
The mustachioed Norwegian, with his trademark red handlebar mustache, led yesterday’s qualifying with 131.9 points after a leap of 135 meters at Alpensia Ski Jumping Center.
Johansson won the bronze in the normal hill last Saturday and put himself in good position for another medal in today’s large hill final.
Japanese teenager Ryoyu Kobayashi had the longest jump of 143.5 meters but was marked down on his landing and was third behind Norway’s Johann Andre Forfang.
Japan’s Noriaki Kasai, who is competing in his record eighth Olympics, was 22nd, and Kevin Bickner of the United States qualified 35th.
Speed on ice
Dutch speedskater Esmee Visser won gold in the women’s 5,000-meter race, finishing in 6:50.23.
Two-time defending champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic took silver in 6:51.85. Russian Natalia Voronina earned bronze in 6:53.98.
Carlijn Schoutens of the
U.S. finished 11th . ...
Hanna Huskova has given Belarus its second gold medal in women’s aerials.
The 25-year-old narrowly edged China’s Zhang Xin in a windy finals. Huskova posted a score of 96.14 in the final round of jumping, just ahead of Zhang’s 95.52. China’s Kong Fanyu took bronze in a sloppy last round . ...
Dario Cologna became the first cross-country skier to win three Olympic gold medals in the same event by capturing the 15-kilometer freestyle, giving Switzerland its first gold of these Games.
Cologna won the race in 33:43.9 seconds, more than 18 seconds ahead of Simen Hegstad Krueger from Norway. Denis Spitsov of Russia finished in third place.