Ester Ledecka excited to continue double duty on skis and snowboard after injury

Whether it be charging down icy slopes on her skis or a snowboard, Ester Ledecka is already looking forward to next winter with optimism.

Beyond that, the free-spirited Czech athlete once again intends to compete in both sports at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

Having missed most of this past winter due to a broken collarbone, Ledecka salvaged the season with a snowboard parallel slalom World Cup victory in Berchtesgarden, Germany, on 18 March.

“I was really happy to finish strong and with such a good feeling also,” Ledecka told Olympics.com in a recent Zoom interview. "I was able to do the race without almost any pain, so that was awesome."

The double Olympic champion in alpine skiing and snowboarding from PyeongChang 2018 almost missed the entire 2022/23 winter season due to a lengthy recovery and rehabilitation.

The 28-year-old multi-sport athlete broke her left collarbone in five places in a severe training crash last August. She underwent immediate surgery, and then had to have another operation in November after the injury failed to heal as hoped.

"I didn’t realise that it would take so much time. I was already on snow after two-and-a half-months, but I had a lot of pain in my shoulder," Ledecka said. "It didn’t feel good. I was only on the flat parts with skis, and couldn’t do any gates. I couldn’t keep my hand in front of me, it was falling all the time because it was hurting so much.

"I went back (to the doctors) and unfortunately after the last X-ray, they discovered that it wasn’t healing the way they expected so I needed another surgery. This time they took part of the bone from my hip and used that to renew the healing process.

“When I knew I needed the second surgery, my hopes really went down. I knew that I would miss the beginning of the season, but I was quite ready to return for World Championships.”

Struggling to make the necessary progress, and on doctors' advice, Ledecka was forced to miss both February's Alpine Skiing World Championships in France, and the Snowboard World Championships in Georgia later that month.

Ledecka finally managed to return in mid-March, impressing with second place in a snowboard parallel giant slalom in Rogla, Slovenia.

She then improved on that with her victory in parallel slalom, a discipline she had not competed in since January 2020, for her 21st World Cup snowboard triumph.

“I’m super proud and happy for Ester’s strong return to snow and competition,” said Justin Reiter, Ledecka’s longtime snowboard racing coach. “The long break was not what we wanted in any sense, but it proved to be a useful time for myself and Ester to review the past and identify new opportunities for growth and progression.

“While Ester did extremely well in the final two World Cups of the season, the injury was still a factor and I’m looking forward to our next block (of training) when she is fully healed,” he said.

Aged 22, Ledecka stunned the winter sports world by achieving an unprecedented Winter Olympics double.

First, she pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Olympic alpine skiing history, dramatically charging to Super-G gold medal wearing start bib 26 just as the victory celebrations for Anna Veith (formerly Fenninger) were about to begin, and after several networks had ended coverage believing the Austrian would not be beaten.

For an encore, Ledecka staved off tremendous pressure to win a second gold medal as the overwhelming favourite in snowboard parallel giant slalom, just one week later.

At Beijing 2022, Ledecka took to the mountain to defend her two golds. She skied well in Super-G, but finished fifth, 0.43 seconds behind Swiss gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami.

And she was not to be denied in the snowboard PGS, retaining her title by easily defeating Austrian Daniela Ulbing in the final.

Ledecka holds the distinction of being the only athlete to have won gold medals in two separate winter sports disciplines. She is also the only athlete to compete in both skiing and snowboarding at the Winter Games.

Ester Ledecka: "More races, more fun" for Milano Cortina 2026

Despite that injury setback and the physical, mental and logistical rigours of training and competing in two different snow sports, Ledecka says that she wouldn’t have it any other way.

And when asked directly if she intends to attempt the skiing-snowboarding double again at Milano Cortina 2026, she replied, "Yeah, for sure, if all goes well and I stay healthy, and if I still enjoy it, then why not?

“It’s me, that’s what I do and it’s kind of fun – more races, more fun,” says the Prague native with a laugh.

Ledecka says that coordinating and balancing training between skiing and snowboarding - with the help of her trusted coaches and team which includes her mother, a former figure skater - has become a relatively smooth process.

"It is a little bit easier now, in the way that the coaches know how to manage everything a little bit better and they are cooperating very well together, and me personally too," Ledecka says.

However, it can be tough on her physically.

“Maybe the body is handling it in its own way though, and my body is not so happy about switching all the time, but that’s part of the game. It’s part of every sport – every world class athlete has to go through a lot of pain."

The Milano-Cortina 2026 women’s alpine skiing events will be contested on the familiar and famed Olympia della Tofane piste in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

At the 2021 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in the Italian Dolomites resort, Ledecka finished just out of the medals twice, crossing the line fourth in both the downhill and Super-G.

Ledecka has also enjoyed vast success on her snowboard at the 1956 Olympic ski resort, shaping snowboard turns on a race hill situated directly across the Ampezzo Valley from the ski racing events.

Five of her 21 career World Cup snowboard victories have come in Cortina. However, snowboard events at the 2026 Games will take place in Livigno, more than a four-hour drive from Cortina, adding to her challenge.

The popular Czech athlete is set to become a four-time Olympian at Milano Cortina 2026.

Ester Ledecka: "It's amazing that I am in the era of Mikaela"

Ledecka's injury travails meant she was not able to see Mikaela Shiffrin's record-breaking exploits close-up this season.

But she has nothing but praise for the American who claimed her fifth overall alpine skiing World Cup title and overtook Ingemar Stenmark's World Cup wins tally.

"It was insane. Watching it from like, this distance... suddenly I was watching it like every other spectator, like part of her show.

"It's amazing to see such consistency in skiing because there are many many people around me who have won World Championships, who won the World Cup, who won Olympic gold, and only a few did it in the style that they could either do something very special or win it so many times that they will be remembered forever.

"It is amazing that I am in the era of Mikaela and that I can see it and I can really be part of it and kind of, you know, ski in the same era. It's something really special and it's always great to see her.

"And also, it's not just that she's a great athlete, she's also a great person, which for me is even more important. As my mom always says, "Medals are not going to make you a better person."

Not just winter sports for Ester Ledecka

The adrenalin sports junkie is also an avid windsurfer, her favourite summer activity.

Despite her ongoing recovery from her collarbone injury, Ledecka is stoked to return to the water as part of her multi-sport, cross-training repertoire.

"I’m super excited to go (wind) surfing. For surfing, the injury has got to be ready and I think it is ready right now,” Ledecka said. “I have a green light, pretty much for almost everything.

“The bone is not 100 per cent healed yet, but it is stable enough to handle some crashes or what could happen, so that’s very important to me.

“Hopefully, there won’t be any crashes, but it can happen because pretty much all of the sports I’m doing are adrenalin sports.”