In a surprise upset, snowboarder Ester Ledecka (from the Czech Republic) won the gold medal in the Alpine skiing Super G. She was on borrowed skiis (Atomics - borrowed from US skier, Mikaela Shiffrin). This is her first Olympics as a skier - at Sochi, she was entered as a snowboarder and she will still be competing in the snowboarding dual slalom later this week.
Her old coach wanted her to choose one sport or the other, so she got coaches who can work with each other and trained 3 weeks snowboarding, then 3 weeks skiing.
Anyway, her reaction at the finish was priceless. She looked at the time, but wouldn’t believe it. So the camera man went over and told her and she just shook her head, smiling and saying “noooo” as if she couldn’t dare believe it. Then she stood at the bottom with the other two skiers (all smiling) with her helmet and goggles on, as if she still didn’t believe she won or that in the excitement she forgot that she didn’t have to do a second run.
This will be one of the biggest stories, simply because of her endearing reaction at the finish. She was start number 26 and NBC had already declared the winner from the top seeds. Great run too - almost lost it on the last jump (her weight was a little back so she landed on her tails). Snowboarding parallel slalom and Super G have a similar rhythm so this might even change coaching/training philosophy for Super G going forward.
Her old coach wanted her to choose one sport or the other, so she got coaches who can work with each other and trained 3 weeks snowboarding, then 3 weeks skiing.
Anyway, her reaction at the finish was priceless. She looked at the time, but wouldn’t believe it. So the camera man went over and told her and she just shook her head, smiling and saying “noooo” as if she couldn’t dare believe it. Then she stood at the bottom with the other two skiers (all smiling) with her helmet and goggles on, as if she still didn’t believe she won or that in the excitement she forgot that she didn’t have to do a second run.
This will be one of the biggest stories, simply because of her endearing reaction at the finish. She was start number 26 and NBC had already declared the winner from the top seeds. Great run too - almost lost it on the last jump (her weight was a little back so she landed on her tails). Snowboarding parallel slalom and Super G have a similar rhythm so this might even change coaching/training philosophy for Super G going forward.