Ester Ledecká wins her first medal at the World Championships: bronze in downhill in Saalbach!

Czech downhill skier Ester Ledecká celebrates winning her first medal at the Alpine World Ski Championships! In the downhill at the Championships in Saalbach, Austria, on Saturday, she won third place behind the American Johnson and the Austrian Puchner after a great run. With the bronze she confirmed her membership in the absolute elite of the speed disciplines.

The 2018 PyeongChang Olympic champion has so far been unlucky not to win the precious metal at the world championships. In 2021 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, she was just a whisker away from medals twice. She was six hundredths of a second off fourth place in the super giant slalom and seven hundredths of a second off fourth place in the downhill.

However, she managed to surpass this career best in Saalbach on Saturday! She came close to doing so on Thursday in Super G, where she attacked the medal positions for a long time, but finally lost speed at the very end and finished seventh. This time, however, she confirmed her good form from the last training session, which she even won, avoiding any major hesitations and taking her first career World Championship medal.

Ledecká went to the start with number 5 and showed a bravura ride. For a long time her intermediate times were even faster than the American Breezy Johnson, but she literally shone in the middle and lower part of the slope, which made her stay in first place from the beginning to the end.

Ledecká had the fastest start of all the competitors and on the second intermediate run she had a 51 hundredths lead. But in the next parts of the course she was a bit slower than the leading American and her lead finally disappeared on the last intermediate.

She was only 21 hundredths behind Johnson, which meant second place and at the finish line Ledecká was not very satisfied with this performance and result. Soon she was surpassed by Austrian Mirjam Puchner, but that was all and gradually a wide smile appeared on the Czech competitor's face. Until the end of the race, Ledecká defended the bronze podium and won the dream metal.

"My skis were perfectly prepared. It was fun to ski today. I must have been drinking too many energy drinks because I was literally flying, especially on the jumps." Ledecká laughed in an interview with Eurosport after the race. "I messed up a few things, but overall I think it was a very good ride."

Twenty-nine-year-old Ledecká, who was third in the downhill at this year's World Cup in St. Anton, her eleventh podium finish among the elite, confirmed that she is currently one of the best speed skiers in the world by winning her first bronze medal.

After this success, he can start focusing again on the other main goals of the season, which include the fight for the small crystal globe in one of the speed disciplines. The closest she has come to this is in the downhill, where she is seventh. She would also like to compete at the snowboard world championships, which are scheduled from 20 to 30 March. However, the World Cup finals in Sun Valley in the USA will also take place during that time.

Congress results
1. Breezy Johnson (USA) 1:41,29
2. Mirjam Puchner (AUT) +0,15
3. Ester Ledecka (CZE) +0,21
4. Cornelia Hütter (AUT) +0,34
5. Lauren Macuga (USA) +0,38
6. Emma Aicher (GER) +0,48

czech-ski.com/ gnews - RoZ