PYEONGCHANG, South Korea: Czech sensation Ester Ledecka overcame suffocating pressure and inner demons to complete a historic Olympic ski-snowboard double, her coach has revealed.
The 22-year-old dominated Saturday’s snowboard giant parallel slalom — a week after stunning the world of alpine skiing with victory in the super-G — establishing herself as the athlete of the Pyeongchang Games.
Ledecka’s parents and coaches had been concerned about the intense hype surrounding her bid to become the first woman to capture gold in different sports at the same Winter Games.
“The amount of pressure that was on her was incredible,” said snowboarding coach Justin Reiter.
“People are people and Ester has her own internal strife. We worked really closely with our team and her parents to manage it as best we can and help her.
“She was protected from the media all this time,” added the American. “While the super-G gold was amazing, of course it was unexpected — she came here with the goal to medal in snowboarding.
“If she chose to just absorb all the energy from the super-G medal and kind of check off the Olympic medal, we’d be having a different conversation today. But because of who Ester is and because of the way she functions, that’s not enough.”
Reiter paid tribute to Ledecka’s work ethic in balancing two sports, while admitting it is hard to pull the adrenalin junkie away from the slopes.
“The number one thing I wanted to do with Ester was to empower her to make choices so that she can become a true champion,” said Reiter.
“She displayed that this season by prioritising her health over her training. In the past she was always train, train, train, train, train and really didn’t rest enough.
“This year we managed everything as perfectly as can be and she’s going home with two gold medals in her pocket.”
Describing Ledecka as a “once-in-a-lifetime” athlete, Reiter insisted there would be no pressure on the snowboarder to increase the events she skis in as a result of her Olympic success.
“If she wants to ski more, I’m fine with that,” he said. “If she wants to snowboard more, I’m fine with that. This is Ester’s career.
“We’ve gotten into this idea of sports specialization at a young age, but sport is not intended to be a business investment.
“We’ve turned it into that and yes it’s about money, but ideally it should be about fun and that’s what makes Ester unique — no matter how hard she works, she loves the work.”
Ester Ledecka battled ‘internal strife’ in Olympic fairytale: Coach
Ester Ledecka battled ‘internal strife’ in Olympic fairytale: Coach
Johnson, Castle shine as Spurs rout Thunder 130-110
- The Thunder fell to 26-4 after the loss, while the Spurs improved to 22-7 to stay in second place in the West
- Anthony Edwards rattled in 38 points as the Minnesota Timberwolves took down the New York Knicks 115-104 in Minneapolis
LOS ANGELES: Keldon Johnson and Stephon Castle combined for 49 points as the San Antonio Spurs produced a second-half scoring blitz to rout the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder 130-110 on Tuesday.
Ten days after eliminating the Thunder from the NBA Cup semifinals, the Spurs once again proved too strong for the Western Conference leaders as they powered to their seventh straight victory in San Antonio.
Starting shooting guard Castle finished with 24 points including four three-pointers but the key contribution came from Johnson, who added 25 off the bench including five threes.
The Thunder fell to 26-4 after the loss, while the Spurs improved to 22-7 to stay in second place in the West.
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama finished with 12 points while reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder scoring with 33 points.
“It shows how serious we are — we’ve got the same aspirations that they have, we just want to come out and compete every time we play them,” said Castle, who poured in 10 of his 24 points during the fourth quarter in which the Spurs outscored the Thunder 43-28.
The Denver Nuggets meanwhile missed the chance to close the gap on Oklahoma City after losing a thrilling duel 131-130 against the Dallas Mavericks on the road in Texas.
Mavericks prodigy Cooper Flagg once again stole the show, with the gifted 19-year-old No.1 draft pick scoring a game high 33 points with nine rebounds and nine assists.
Flagg’s performance was backed by 31 points from Anthony Davis as Dallas outdueled Nuggets duo Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who accounted for 60 Denver points.
The Nuggets almost snatched victory at the buzzer, but Peyton Watson’s wide open three-point attempt bounced out after hitting the rim.
“We’re just coming together, trying to have each other’s backs,” Flagg said. “Obviously Jamal and (Jokic) had it going — so we were just trying to take those guys away and make somebody else beat us.”
Dallas improved to 12-19 while the Nuggets slipped to 21-8 in the West.
Flagg, meanwhile, took encouragement from another hard-fought win by the Mavs, who last week took down the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.
“We’re learning from all of these experiences,” Flagg said. “You know we’ve been in a lot of really close games, so just trying to take stuff from those games and learn from it and get better.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Anthony Edwards rattled in 38 points as the Minnesota Timberwolves took down the New York Knicks 115-104 in Minneapolis.
Edwards knocked down four three-pointers while teammate Julius Randle added 25 points as the Wolves eclipsed a 40-point performance from Karl-Anthony Towns.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who scored 47 points in Sunday’s win over Miami, missed the game with a right ankle problem.
