CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — After months of agonizing over a decision she would have preferred not to have to make, skier-snowboarder Ester Ledecka has finally chosen to compete in the Alpine skiing world championships next month instead of the snowboard worlds.
The Czech athlete who won golds in skiing and snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Olympics last year had to make the choice since the parallel giant slalom at the freestyle ski and snowboard world championships in Utah is scheduled for Feb. 4 — the same day that downhill training opens at the skiing worlds in Are, Sweden, and a day before the super-G race there.
“I go skiing,” Ledecka said on Thursday following a World Cup downhill training session.
“I would like to go (to) both but I had to make a choice and I made it and I’m looking forward to it. … The way I have the schedule right now it makes more sense for me.
“The decision had to be made and this is the life.”
At the Pyeongchang Olympics, Ledecka followed her super-G victory in Alpine skiing by winning the parallel GS in snowboarding — becoming the first athlete to win two golds at the same Winter Games using two different types of equipment.
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Ledecka won a snowboard race in Cortina a month ago on the course in Faloria. With downhill races scheduled on Friday and Saturday followed by a super-G on Sunday, she’ll now be competing on the other side of the valley on the Olympia delle Tofane course.
“It’s weird because I really think about the speed in different ways when I have a snowboard and when I have skis,” Ledecka said. “When I have a snowboard and I ride faster you feel it more, you feel more fast. … And here you should get really fast to feel like, ‘OK, now it’s running.'”
Ledecka fell in the second downhill training session but got back up uninjured and continued her run. She was later fined $500 by the International Ski Federation for continuing to ski after a crash.
“She had the feeling that she didn’t completely stop,” said Tomas Bank, Ledecka’s coach. “Now she understands that there are security reasons. She’s a racehorse so she always tries to finish.”
Having already won two world titles in snowboarding, Ledecka considered an attempt to duplicate that success at the Alpine worlds was attractive.
“I would like to try to have some nice results on skis as well, and to try Are because it’s a nice hill and I really liked it there,'” said Ledecka, who finished 11th in the downhill at World Cup finals in Are last March — after placing second in downhill training. “It’s a good decision.”
Ledecka said she will compete in the super-G, downhill “and maybe super-combined” in Are: “I already made three runs on slalom skis so I will be quite well prepared.”
After the Alpine worlds, Ledecka will return to the snowboard World Cup.
Ledecka appealed to the FIS to change competition schedules to make it possible for her to compete in both worlds, and the governing body said it tried to help.
FIS secretary general Sarah Lewis told The Associated Press: “Whatever had been possible would have been done but unfortunately with the logistics involved in the whole setup it wasn’t possible. It wasn’t without significant efforts.”
The worlds in Utah involve four different ski areas and parallel snowboard racing shares the same Park City venue with halfpipe, slopestyle and big air events.
“There isn’t the capacity to double it up and have everything going on at the same time,” Lewis said.
“It’s a very, very complex setup there. There are 28 events on the program. It’s a huge event. With morning and evening events and logistics,” Lewis said. “Crossing over from one championship to another, it’s obviously unique and never happened before.”
Lewis added that the next snowboard worlds will be in China in March 2021, a month after the Alpine championships in Cortina.
“Then there will probably be a new problem that it will clash with the World Cup,” Lewis said.
Added Ledecka, “It will happen again. I’m afraid so. But I will fight.”