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{"id":1857,"date":"2019-07-20T08:51:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T08:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iceatrail.com\/?page_id=1857"},"modified":"2021-12-31T10:29:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T10:29:34","slug":"ester-ledecka","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iceatrail.com\/ester-ledecka\/","title":{"rendered":"Ester Ledeck\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ester Ledeck\u00e1<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI tried and gave it everything I have. Even though everybody kept telling me it was not possible.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledeck\u00e1 interview: Czech winter sports legend Ester Ledeck\u00e1 is the only person in history to have won Olympic gold medals on two different pieces of equipment. In this interview she talks to us about the Ester Ledeck\u00e1 Snowboard and Ski story and we try to crack the code of her unprecedented success.<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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ester ledeck\u00e1<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI tried and gave it everything I have. Even though everybody kept telling me it was not possible.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledeck\u00e1 interview: Czech winter sports legend Ester Ledeck\u00e1 is the only person in history to have won Olympic gold medals on two different pieces of equipment. In this interview she talks to us about the Ester Ledeck\u00e1 Snowboard and Ski story and we try to crack the code of her unprecedented success.<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI wanted to make it so much that I didn’t think about any other possibility.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0By Paul McGee, Head Feature Writer. July 27 2019<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In some ways there is only virgin territory ahead of Ester Ledecka\u0301.<\/p>

The ground that stretches so promisingly before her is uncharted. Because no one has achieved what she has.<\/p>

\u201cEverybody kept telling me it was not possible,\u201d Ester tells me. “Well, I really don’t blame anyone – they had a point in some ways.”<\/p>

I have approached the subject of Ester Ledecka\u0301’s exceptional achievements on snow. I’d like to understand how she has reached such pinnacles of success across two different disciplines, and I feel like there\u2019s a lot to learn from this winter sports trail blazer.<\/p>

Multi-tasking: it\u2019s an alien concept to me. I can\u2019t cook the dinner and make a phone call at the same time \u2013 even on hands-free. I can ski and I can snowboard but while I\u2019m comfortable all over the mountain on two planks, my snowboarding skills are intermediate. At best.<\/p>

Alright, so that\u2019s just me. Plenty of winter sports junkies can step nimbly from skis to board with perfect adroitness (she might not admit to it, but half pipe snowboard legend Torah Bright<\/a><\/span> is actually pretty handy on skis too).<\/p>

There is an abundance the world over of multi-discipline athletes who are competent across the full spectrum of their sports. Those who reign supreme, however, are a rarer breed.<\/p>

If it\u2019s true that variety is the spice of life, then Ester Ledecka\u0301 is jalapeno-hot.<\/p>

Make no mistake, this Czech Olympic Champion has taken the concept of versatility and ridden it into the stratosphere of the winter sports empyrean. When Ester won gold at Pyeongchang 2018 not just in two separate events, but across two entirely separate disciplines, on two entirely different pieces of equipment – well, to say that she turned a few heads is an understatement of monolithic proportions. Hers is an accomplishment no one else has attained. Ever.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledecka\u0301 Super G mode: at this year's FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ester Ledecka\u0301 Super G mode: at this year's FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In fact Ester Ledecka\u0301 is the epitome of over-achievement. Quite how she pulled off that Olympic feat, winning gold at Super G in alpine skiing and then seven days later, gold at Parallel Giant Slalom in alpine snowboarding, is something most onlookers \u2013 not to mention many of her fellow athletes \u2013 have marveled at. Such discipline diversity, I\u2019ve decided, is worth investigating. The Ester Ledecka\u0301 code is one I\u2019m going to crack.<\/p>

And the first clue, it seems, lies in her compulsion to keep moving. Ester Ledecka\u0301 is not one to lounge by the pool, even on holiday.<\/p>

\u201cI had some rest during the past week,\u201d she says. \u201cI came to Greece and I was enjoying myself. I was windsurfing, wakeboarding, water skiing. Now I\u2019ve started my conditioning training so I added some running, jumping and other workouts.\u201d<\/p>

The water sports Ester talks of are athletic ones, the kind that leave the uninitiated wobbling at the knees and unable to raise their arms (what do you mean that sounds like the voice of experience?) Ester Ledecka\u0301 calls them \u2018rest\u2019 – you heard that too right?<\/p>

As well as the twin gold medals at Pyeongchang, Ester Ledecka\u0301 has won two alpine snowboard golds and a silver at the 2015 and 2017 FIS World Championships. In other words she isn\u2019t a one-hit-wonder who got lucky at the Olympics. But to really delve into the recipe of her achievements, we must go back to the beginning.<\/p>

\u201cWell I started with skis when I was two or three years old,” she says. “I was following what my brother did. He is one and a half years older than me and so when he started with a board, I wanted to do it too. I was five years old when I started with snowboarding and I did freestyle snowboarding and boardercross until I was about thirteen years old. And again it was my brother who started with alpine snowboarding and I wanted to beat him, so I learned that too. To be honest my first steps on a snowboard and also then later on an alpine board were really difficult for me and I didn\u2019t like it in the beginning. But as I said I was very competitive and I wanted to get better at these sports. I believed that once I got into it I would love it – and I was right!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

So we have the first clues pointing towards Ester’s future successes, and they centre around that age-old value of competition. But surely a desire to beat your older sibling doesn\u2019t equate to double Olympic gold.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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History has delivered us some great skiers and some great snowboarders, a handful of whom we can truly call legends of their respective sports. Somehow Ester Ledecka\u0301 has taken that notion a step further and beaten the best on both skis and snowboard. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics she finished ahead of Anna Veith, no less, to take Super G gold, and overcame alpine snowboard bastions Selina J\u00f6rg and Ramona Hofmeister en route to PGS gold. Which is unprecedented (at least, it is at the same Winter Olympics on two entirely different pieces of hardware \u2013 Russian Anfisa Reztsova won gold in Cross Country Skiing at the 1988 Calgary Games and then took Biathlon gold at the 1992 Albertville and 1994 Lillehammer Games). So I\u2019m compelled to investigate further, to ask a question which I think might just be impossible to answer: How?<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s not so difficult a question. I simply tried that. I tried and gave it everything I have. Even though everybody kept telling me it was not possible. Well, I really don\u2019t blame anyone \u2013 they had a point in some ways, but I believed that I would make it. And my family believed in me. This was the most important thing. I wanted to make it so much, that I didn\u2019t think about any other possibility. There are still a lot of goals in front of me and I still feel that, after all these years, I have the flame burning inside of me. I\u2019m still enjoying my life the way it is, even through all this hard work the life of the professional athlete brings.\u201d<\/p>

So to the recipe of success we must add self-belief. Ester\u2019s fortitude comes from within, that much is evident. But those pioneering achievements are not solely down to her inner convictions, nor to that competitive nature developed all those years ago against her older brother. Ester Ledecka\u0301 built her own foundations, yes, but there is a supporting framework that buttresses the core: even an athlete of Ester\u2019s monumental capacities needs a helping hand.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m proud that I have a great relationship with my family, because this is not so common in the present time around me. I\u2019m proud that I can afford to pay all those great people in my team because that was also an important part of my dream \u2013 that I would have enough money to pay my physio, tech guy, coach, and all of those expenses connected with my training and racing activities.\u201d<\/p>

Actually it\u2019s coaches<\/i>, plural, because not surprisingly Ester has more than just one. Her skiing coaches are brothers Tom\u00e1\u0161 and Ond\u0159ej Bank. Ond\u0159ej is a two-time 3rd place finisher in the World Cup and finished fifth in the Giant Slalom at Sochi, making him the most successful alpine skier to emerge from the Czech Republic.<\/p>

Guiding Ester to snowboard supremacy are Italian Erich Pramsohler, and Justin Reiter from the USA, who in 2013 took Parallel Slalom silver at the FIS World Championships in Stoneham, Quebec. Then there is the head of her snowboard team, Sigi Grabner, who won bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games and gold at the 2003 Parallel Giant Slalom World Championships. (Sigi is also the founder of SG Snowboards, on whose boards Ester races). Alongside serviceman Petr Kou\u0159il and physiotherapist Jakub Marek, Ester\u2019s mother Zuzana takes overall responsibility for her training and competition schedule.<\/p>

Quite the supporting cast isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Yet another press interview. Everyone wants to know about the Ester Ledecka\u0301 Olympics<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It is a litany of ski and snowboard talent that\u2019s as necessary as it is prestigious. The professional winter sports athlete lives a busy life. Even the summer months are chock-full of conditioning and physio, fine tuning equipment and techniques. But the winter brings a relentless competition schedule, plucking an athlete from their home nation and delivering them to the far-flung mountain ranges of the world. It is an enervating trail of airports and oversized baggage, jet lag and yes, racing against the best in the world. And that is a pattern followed by those athletes who pursue just the one discipline.<\/p>

While Ester and her team can put together some kind of pre-season plan, with a box here for skiing, a box there for snowboarding, one schedule clash in the racing calendar can throw the whole design out the window. As a result, Ester\u2019s race season can be somewhat of a rollercoaster. As evinced by her decision at the end of the 18-19 season when on January 17th she made up her mind to compete at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in \u00c5re, Sweden instead of the Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in Utah. Both kicked off at the start of February.<\/p>

\u201cUsually we plan to make sort of training blocks. Always some days on skis and some days on snowboard. But that is just the plan A. And through plans B, C…we are somewhere in plan X in the middle of the season. Because we have to arrange our plans according to the weather and the permanently changing race schedule, and that is already kind of a rodeo. It is a lot about the communication between my coaches and my mum the head coach who are all luckily in the very good relationship.\u201d<\/p>

Because Ester Ledecka\u0301\u2019s team can register some of her entries with the FIS just a day or two prior to the events in question, the decision on whether to race on one plank or two can be a very last minute one. Hence the unpredictable nature of her season. Actually, rodeo sums it up very well.<\/p>

The Ester Ledecka\u0301 puzzle is growing clearer. Under inspection I feel like I\u2019ve identified some of the necessary \u2013 alright, vital \u2013 components to her success: determination, self-belief, an insuperable competitive urge; and now we can add the element of teamwork, the nuts and bolts of Ester\u2019s athletic vehicle.<\/p>

There is more than just the people element though. Every winter sports athlete must be at one with their equipment. That goes for skaters, sliders, all the skiing and snowboarding disciplines too. For Ester Ledecka\u0301 that means two suppliers. As I said, for snowboarding she races on equipment made by the Austrian boutique fabricator SG, who also supply boards to Pierre Vaultier<\/a><\/span>, Andrey Sobolev, Dmitry Loginov and a host of other Olympic, World Cup and World Championship medallists. Actually I\u2019ve got a lot to say about SG and their values, but I\u2019m hoping to catch up with Sigi himself in the near future so let\u2019s put that one hold for now.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledecka\u0301 and the Atomic skis that have carried her to such unprecedented success.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ester Ledecka\u0301 and the Atomic skis that have carried her to such unprecedented success.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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At the opposite end of the spectrum from a commercial sense perhaps, is Atomic. A subsidiary of the massive Amer Sports Group, Atomic manufactures some 600,000 pairs of skis every year. If you\u2019ve been anywhere near a winter resort in your life, you\u2019ll have seen someone with their Atomic boots clipped to their Atomic skis. And of course, their equipment is used by some of the greatest skiers in the world. Alongside Ester Ledecka\u0301, Mikaela Shiffrin, Sofia Goggia and Marcel Hirscher are but a handful of the names on the Atomic roster.<\/p>

For two sports equipment entities so different on the surface, Ester has found some common ground.<\/p>

\u201cActually,\u201d she says, \u201cthe most important points are similar for both \u2013 top quality and an individual approach to athletes. I\u2019m very honored that such a top factories have chosen me as a factory rider. The professional equipment makes a big difference in the final result. It is great that top professionals have my back!\u201d<\/p>

If you\u2019re an aspiring winter sports athlete, you’re probably thinking: Great, I had all the boxes ticked, right up to the part where she gets the multiple sponsorship deals.<\/p>

You know what, don’t worry about that.<\/p>

There is an expression that goes something like: If you build it, they will come. Taken literally it’s an erroneous mantra because let’s face it, how many new shops, restaurants and online entities pop up and then collapse within the first year of trading? They built them, and no one came.<\/p>

But taken as a metaphor for the character – now there is a saying that rings true.<\/p>

Yes, if you\u2019re going to compete at the elite level of any sport, you’re going to need someone who provides the necessary equipment. But it isn\u2019t a sine qua non<\/i> to success. Not in the beginning. The more Ester reveals to me, the more I realise that attitude is the vital ingredient. At the start, and throughout a successful career. The Ester Ledecka\u0301 mindset is like a magnet for the other components of success. In fact her very definition of success isn\u2019t measured in medals and trophies, but something much more fundamental and profound. It is measured in approach, not results.<\/p>

\u201cI think success is everything that you have reached with passion,\u201d Ester tells me. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be a big thing. You can decide that you will learn a new language or walk on the slackline, or make an awesome dinner for your friends. Only when you invest your time to reach this goal, you will give it a chance and you will try it over and over again until you will make it. Then the success for me is not only the result but it is the way how to get there and the first decision to get out from your comfort zone and to try to be better.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledecka\u0301 Snowboard and Ski Queen Supreme<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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She means it too. To put her convictions to the test, I decide to see if she will commit to a proudest moment, some cynosure in her record-breaking career that she treasures above all others. If she truly doesn\u2019t measure her achievements by material gains, then she won\u2019t talk of specific wins.<\/p>

I\u2019m not disappointed.<\/p>

\u201cThis is a difficult question!\u201d she concedes, before adding, \u201cI think I\u2019m proud that I never gave up, not a single run. And I hope I will have the strong will to continue in this kind of system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

The more athletes I talk to, the more that common element comes to the fore: tenacity. You could probably apply the same approach to any kind of vocation, even those with no relation to sport. Thriving entrepreneurs seem to find a way to pick themselves up after every fall. The ability to deal with failure is key. Let the first setback snuff out your ambition and you\u2019re already on the road to mediocrity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI never had this problem. Failure is my biggest motivation. When I lose a race I would be happiest if I could ride the same slope again, or train some more to improve myself. And I take this motivation with me to other trainings.\u201d<\/p>

Ester Ledecka\u0301 is no quitter, that much is obvious. She is relentless in the pursuit of her passions (most definitively, said passions are plural). But what is easy to overlook is the importance of practicing the metier that you have the most passion for in the first place.<\/p>

If like me you subscribe to the Ester Ledecka\u0301 Instagram feed, then you\u2019ll see a lady who never stops. She is either training on skis or snowboard, or if there\u2019s sea nearby then she will be windsurfing or playing beach volleyball. I wonder if that bustling, perpetually active lifestyle is one she would prescribe to others.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I love to move and I love sports, that is the reason why I do it. I don\u2019t think about it in the way that I have to do it, I just want to do it! I think everybody should do the things they love. And to live their lives the way they want, to make their own footsteps \u2013 maybe even at the places where no one was in front of them.\u201d<\/p>

I\u2019ve learned a lot from Ester Ledecka\u0301, and actually a lot of it is transferable to this leisure-skier\/boarder – and to this writer. I\u2019ve learned from her even if she is still learning herself. As she continues to tread uncharted ground.<\/p>

I can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s next.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ester Ledecka\u0301 with her groundbreaking Olympic gold medals<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ester Ledecka\u0301 with her groundbreaking Olympic gold medals<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My thanks to the inspirational and groundbreaking Ester Ledecka\u0301 for her time. Thanks also to Sigi Grabner of SG Snowboards<\/a><\/span> for his assistance in arranging this interview.<\/p>\n

You can keep up with Ester as she advances on yet more new territory at the following feeds:<\/p>\n

Ester Ledecka\u0301 Instagram: @esterledecka<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ester Ledecka\u0301 Twitter: @ledeckaester<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ester Ledecka\u0301 Facebook: \/esterledecka.cz<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Related article: Michela Moioli<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ester Ledeck\u00e1 \u201cI tried and gave it everything I have. Even though everybody kept telling me it was not possible.\u201d Ester Ledeck\u00e1 interview: Czech winter sports legend Ester Ledeck\u00e1 is the only person in history to have won Olympic gold medals on two different pieces of equipment. In this interview she talks to us about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1894,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1857","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nEster Ledeck\u00e1: how did she DO that?!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We ask ski and snowboard Olympic Champion Ester Ledeck\u00e1 how she pulled off that historic double.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iceatrail.com\/ester-ledecka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ester Ledeck\u00e1: how did she DO that?!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We ask ski and snowboard 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