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Ledecka says 2026 Winter Olympic schedule will hurt her medal hopes / Photo: © AFP
Ledecka says 2026 Winter Olympic schedule will hurt her medal hopes
Czech snowboarder and alpine skier Ester Ledecka, a three-time Olympic champion, on Saturday slammed the 2026 Winter Games schedule which she says will not allow her to compete in all her sports.
The 29-year-old stunned her rivals by winning the alpine skiing super-G and the snowboarding parallel giant slalom in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Ledecka, who also won the parallel giant slalom at Beijing 2022, has since won two Alpine skiing World Cup races in super-G and two in the downhill.
But the organisers of the next Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo have scheduled the snowboarding parallel giant slalom for the same time as the downhill.
"I'm terribly sad to be frank," Ledecka told the public Czech TV about the timetable clash on February 8, 2026.
"I don't know if I have the power to change it," Ledecka said, speaking from Mylin, China where she stormed to a win in the season-opening snowboarding parallel giant slalom on Saturday.
She said she would call on her friends, sponsors and sports associations to exert pressure on the organisers to change the schedule.
"There are not many athletes at the Winter Olympics who do two sports -- I guess I'm the only one, so they don't really reckon with it I suppose," she said.
"It hurts but I'm not sure if I can change this in any way."
W.Nam--SG
