Ester Ledecká
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| Born |
23 March 1995 Prague, Czech Republic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Prague, Czech Republic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Czech Republic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Snowboarding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Parallel slalom, parallel giant slalom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Dukla Liberec | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Richard Pickl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ester Ledecká (Czech pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛr ˈlɛdɛtskaː], born 23 March 1995) is a Czech snowboarder and alpine skier. She is the first Czech to win the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.
Biography
Ledecká was born in Prague, to mother Zuzana, a figure skater[1] and father Janek, a well-known singer in the Czech Republic.[2][3] She comes from a sporting family: her grandfather is former ice hockey player and two-time Olympic medallist Jan Klapáč.[3] In 2014, she was still at high school, attending a distance-learning programme in Prague.[4] Ice hockey was the first sport she took up as a child, before taking up skiing at the age of four and later switching to snowboarding.[1] Her hobbies include playing the guitar and singing.[5] She also enjoys participating in summer sports such as beach volleyball and windsurfing.[1]
Career
She competed in her first World Cup tournament in 2012–13 competition, finishing in 13th place in the parallel giant slalom event.[2]
In March 2013 at the age of 17, Ledecká won gold in the parallel slalom event at the Junior World Championships, her second gold of the competition.[6]
She was named "Junior Sportsperson of the year" at the Czech Republic's 2013 Sportsperson of the Year awards.[7]
During the 2013–14 FIS Snowboard World Cup, she placed second behind Patrizia Kummer in the first parallel slalom event in Bad Gastein and third in the second event. She subsequently won gold at Rogla in the parallel giant slalom event at the same competition, becoming the first Czech to do so.[8] In doing so, she also became just the third Czech to win any World Cup snowboarding event.[9]
Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, The Daily Telegraph's Andrew Lawton mentioned Ledecká as the "one to watch" in the women's snowboarding competition.[8] She was among the Czech athletes most expected to win a medal at the games, along with Martina Sáblíková, Gabriela Soukalová and fellow snowboarder Eva Samková.[10] After Ledecka had finished ninth in qualifying for the Alpine skiing event at the Winter Olympics, the Czech Ski Association attempted to register her as a competitor, however the FIS rejected the proposal, reiterating that only eight Czechs could compete.[5][11]
Ledecká made her Olympic debut on 19 February 2014 in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event. She reached the quarter final stage before being eliminated by Patrizia Kummer, who went on to win the goal medal in the event. Ledecká was classified as seventh overall.[12]
Ledecká has combined her snowboarding career with competing in alpine skiing: she made her debut on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in February 2016, finishing 24th in her first race, the Kandahar downhill in Garmisch.[13] She went on to score points in four of her first five World Cup races, competing in the downhill and Super-G disciplines.[1] She has stated that she hopes to compete in both skiing and snowboarding at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[13][1]
World Cup results
Season titles
- 2 titles – (1 overall, 1 parallel giant slalom)
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 2015–16 | Overall |
| Parallel GS |
Season standings
| Season | Age | Overall | Parallel slalom | Parallel giant slalom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–13 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 15 |
| 2013–14 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 2014–15 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| 2015–16 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Race podiums
| Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013–14 | 10 January 2014 |  Bad Gastein, Austria | Parallel slalom | 2nd |
| 12 January 2014 | Parallel slalom | 3rd | ||
| 18 January 2014 |  Rogla, Slovenia | Parallel GS | 1st | |
| 2014–15 | 9 January 2015 | Bad Gastein, Austria | Parallel slalom | 1st |
| 7 February 2015 |  Sudelfeld, Germany | Parallel GS | 1st | |
| 28 February 2015 |  Asahikawa, Japan | Parallel GS | 3rd | |
| 2015–16 | 12 December 2015 |  Carezza, Italy | Parallel GS | 1st |
| 23 January 2016 | Rogla, Slovenia | Parallel GS | 1st | |
| 30 January 2016 |  Moscow, Russia | Parallel slalom | 3rd | |
| 27 February 2016 |  Kayseri, Turkey | Parallel GS | 1st |
Olympic results 
| Year | Age | Parallel slalom | Parallel giant slalom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 Sochi | 18 | 6 | 7 |
World Championships results
| Year | Age | Parallel slalom | Parallel giant slalom |
|---|---|---|---|
 2011 La Molina | 15 | 40 | 33 |
 2013 Stoneham | 17 | 17 | 16 |
| 2015 Kreischberg | 19 | 1 | 5 |
See also
Notes and references
- 1 2 3 4 5 Dampf, Andrew (22 February 2016). "Czech athlete transitions from snowboard to ski at World Cup". CTV News. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
- 1 2 "Dcera Janka Ledeckého debutovala ve Světovém poháru ve snowboardingu 13. místem". Hospodářské noviny (in Czech). 21 December 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- 1 2 Grim, Filip (3 February 2014). "Od sněhuláků přes zapomenuté lyže. Jak Ledecká startovala kariéru". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ Jakoubek, Jiří (18 January 2014). "Za odměnu mám vafle, smála se po prvním triumfu v SP Ledecká". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- 1 2 David, Jan (7 February 2014). "Na noc si dávám zmrzlinu, ale vždycky! směje se Ledecká". Metro Praha (in Czech). Prague: MAFRA. p. 16.
- ↑ "Ledecka and Baumeister win parallel slalom at Junior World Champs". FIS. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ Beránek, Jaroslav; Kučerová, Martina (18 December 2013). "Neporazitelná běžkyně Hejnová vyhrála i souboj o titul Sportovec roku". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- 1 2 Lawton, Andrew (5 February 2014). "Winter Olympics 2014: Blagger's guide to snowboarding". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ "Career's first for Ledecka and Mathies in Rogla PGS | First Czech win on Alpine Snowboard World Cup tour | Exciting race for Crystal Globes". rogla.eu. Archived from the original on 7 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ "Czech Republic names 85 athletes to Sochi Olympic team". AP. Sports Illustrated. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ Augustin, Marek (1 February 2014). "Ledecká bude v Soči závodit jen na snowboardu, start v lyžování neprošel". Czech Radio (in Czech). Retrieved 7 February 2014.
- ↑ Grim, Filip (19 February 2014). "Desítka, jak jsem plánovala, chválila se Ledecká po olympijském debutu". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 19 February 2014.
- 1 2 "Ester Ledecka surprises ski world". International Ski Federation. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Karolína Erbanová Anežka Drahotová |
Czech Junior Athlete of the Year 2013 2015 (with Jiří Janošek) |
Succeeded by Anežka Drahotová Most recent recipient |