Ester Ledecká

Ester Ledecká
Personal information
Born (1995-03-23) 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

Ester Ledecká (Czech pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛr ˈlɛdɛtskaː], born 23 March 1995) is a Czech snowboarder. 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 and father Janek, a well-known singer in the Czech Republic.[1][2] She comes from a family of sporting background; her grandfather is two-time Olympic medallist Jan Klapáč.[2] In 2014, she was still at high school, attending a distance-learning programme in Prague.[3] Her hobbies include playing the guitar and singing.[4]

Career

She competed in her first World Cup tournament in 2012–13 competition, finishing in 13th place in the parallel giant slalom event.[1]

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.[5]

She was named "Junior Sportsperson of the year" at the Czech Republic's 2013 Sportsperson of the Year awards.[6]

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.[7] In doing so, she also became just the third Czech to win any World Cup snowboarding event.[8]

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.[7] 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.[9] 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.[4][10]

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.[11]

World Cup results

Season titles

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
2013–1410 January 2014 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Parallel slalom 2nd
12 January 2014 Parallel slalom 3rd
18 January 2014 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel GS 1st
2014–159 January 2015 Austria Bad Gastein, Austria Parallel slalom 1st
7 February 2015 Germany Sudelfeld, Germany Parallel GS 1st
28 February 2015 Japan Asahikawa, Japan Parallel GS 3rd
2015–1612 December 2015 Italy Carezza, Italy Parallel GS 1st
23 January 2016 Slovenia Rogla, Slovenia Parallel GS 1st
30 January 2016 Russia Moscow, Russia Parallel slalom 3rd
27 February 2016 Turkey Kayseri, Turkey Parallel GS 1st

Olympic results

  Year    Age  Parallel
 slalom 
Parallel
 giant slalom 
Russia 2014 Sochi 18 6 7

World Championships results

  Year    Age  Parallel
 slalom 
Parallel
 giant slalom 
Spain 2011 La Molina 15 40 33
Canada 2013 Stoneham 17 17 16
Austria 2015 Kreischberg 19 1 5

See also

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 "Dcera Janka Ledeckého debutovala ve Světovém poháru ve snowboardingu 13. místem". Hospodářské noviny (in Czech). 21 December 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. "Ledecka and Baumeister win parallel slalom at Junior World Champs". FIS. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  6. 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.
  7. 1 2 Lawton, Andrew (5 February 2014). "Winter Olympics 2014: Blagger's guide to snowboarding". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  8. "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.
  9. "Czech Republic names 85 athletes to Sochi Olympic team". AP. Sports Illustrated. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  10. 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.
  11. Grim, Filip (19 February 2014). "Desítka, jak jsem plánovala, chválila se Ledecká po olympijském debutu". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). Retrieved 19 February 2014.

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
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