Czech athlete Ester Ledecka, who became the first to win two gold medals in different sports at the same Winter Olympics in 2018, is preparing for another dual challenge at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. She will compete in snowboarding parallel giant slalom and alpine super-G, aiming to secure a third consecutive Olympic gold in the snowboarding event. A scheduling conflict has ruled out the women's downhill for her.
Ester Ledecka's unconventional path in winter sports has long defied expectations. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, the then-22-year-old stunned the world by claiming gold in the alpine super-G by a mere 0.01 seconds over defending champion Anna Veith, prompting her famous reaction: "Is this a kind of mistake?" Days later, she added another gold in snowboarding parallel giant slalom, marking her as the first athlete to triumph in two distinct disciplines at one Winter Games.
In Beijing 2022, Ledecka defended her snowboarding title successfully but placed fifth in super-G. Now 30, she arrives at Milan Cortina in strong form, having won a World Cup parallel giant slalom in Austria—her sole snowboarding preparation this season. On skis, she finished 10th in a World Cup super-G in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on January 31, 2026.
The Olympics schedule poses a hurdle: the snowboarding parallel giant slalom final is set for 1 p.m. on February 8 in Livigno, clashing with the women's downhill at 11:30 a.m. in Cortina, a four-hour drive away. Ledecka's appeal to adjust timings was denied by the International Olympic Committee. "I cried a bit a few times about it but we did the best we could," she said in October. "I’m the only athlete who has qualified for the event in two sports for the third time so I was hoping that they would take that into account."
She prioritized snowboarding but can race super-G on February 12 in Cortina. No snowboarder, including Shaun White, has won parallel giant slalom at three straight Olympics, putting another milestone within her reach. Ledecka's roots trace to ice hockey, inspired by her grandfather Jan Klapac's Olympic medals in 1964 and 1968 for Czechoslovakia. She began skiing at age four, later embracing snowboarding while insisting on dual pursuits. As she once told coaches from age 14: "I will do them both, and if that bothers you, I will find another coach because this is how it is going to be."
