CTK
Updated 15. 3. 2023 18:40
Three-time Olympic champion Ester Ledecká returned to racing after an injury with second place in the parallel giant slalom on a snowboard in Rogle. At the World Cup in the Slovenian center today, she first won the qualification and then also three elimination races, but in the final duel she was surpassed by the Austrian Sabine Schöffmannová by five hundredths. Ledecká was moved by the warm reception of the entire snowboarding community.
Ledecká entered the season at the last moment, which was almost lost by a summer fracture of the collarbone. After two operations and a long recovery, she raced almost a year later.
It was only at the beginning of February that the doctors allowed Ledecka to start training on the snow, but the forced long break was not noticeable on the Czech winter “amphibians” today. She won the qualification by half a second and had problems on the way to the final only in the quarter-final, in which she defeated the Austrian Ramona Theresia Hofmeisterová by only 22 hundredths of a second after a mistake at the end.
In the semi-finals, Ledecká outclassed the Italian Lucia Dalmassová by almost two and a half seconds. But her sleepy ride came to an end in the final. The 27-year-old Czech chose the faster blue track and led at the first interval, but Schöffmann then attacked with a risky ride and deprived Ledecká of her sixth triumph in Rogle.
She thus disrupted Ledecka’s dream of a winning comeback. “I imagined something different. I imagined that I would win the last race,” admitted Ledecká in a recording for the media. But she expected that the opponents would be of good quality and balance. “All the girls in the top 16 ride excellently, and once they get to the heats, then you shouldn’t underestimate anyone. I always tried to ride as best as I could. I think that all the girls are fast. I’m maybe on them I’m ready and I hope I’ll be even better,” she added.
The warm welcome touched her
“I have to thank you for how the whole snowboarding world welcomed me back with open arms. It was really very touching and very nice,” Ledecká gushed after the race. “All the boys and all the girls came up to me and welcomed me back. It was really really nice. I’m very grateful for this environment we have here and how nice the people around me are.”
She was competing on a snowboard for the first time since winning the gold medal at last year’s Olympics in Beijing. After breaking her collarbone in the summer, which doctors operated on twice, she was not allowed to go on the snow for many months. She did not stand on the board until the beginning of February. She praised the work of trainer Justin Reiter, who helped her get into competitive shape in record time. “That was probably the first time we had to prepare in such a long time that I wasn’t going in either skiing or snowboarding. It was the first race in a year, so that’s really hard for a coach to handle,” she said.
Her return from injury in Slovenia was watched by both parents. And Ledecká was a little unsure after a long racing break. “It was unusual because I wasn’t busy in that season, as I usually am these days. So it was like this for the first time in a year and it was very strange, but at the same time great. The other girls are already up and running by this time and the race is nothing new for them , but I still had to touch myself. And I think that we did a great job with the team,” said the twenty-seven-year-old Czech.
For serviceman Gunthram Mathis, who also prepared skis for Bode Miller in the past, and physiotherapist Jaroslav Blažek, the business in Rogle was a premiere for snowboard races. “I am very proud of them, how they managed it,” praised Ledecká.
Olympic champion in this discipline from 2018 and 2022, Ledecká is still preparing for Saturday’s final individual race of the SP in Berchtesgaden, where the parallel slalom will be raced.
The men’s race in Rogle was won by the Italian Roland Fischnaller. He was accompanied to the podium by compatriots Mirko Felicetti and Edwin Coratti. Ledecká was the only one from the Czech snowboard team to qualify. Zuzana Maděrová, Klára Šonková and Adam Počinek did not advance to the knockout heats.
