Ester Ledecká claimed parallel giant slalom gold at the Snowboard World Championships in Engadin, becoming the first athlete to medal at two different FIS World Championships in a single season.
A class of her own at Corviglia
The Czech rider stamped her authority on the event from the first qualification run. She posted the fastest combined time of 1:29.56, more than three seconds clear of the 52 competitors from 21 nations.
In the knockout rounds, Ledecká simply carried that superiority forward. She dispatched each rival with ease before meeting Japan's Tsubaki Miki, the defending world champion, in the final.
Eight years, one clear message
Miki had reached the gold-medal race through an exhilarating semifinal, edging Poland's Aleksandra Król-Walas by just 0.01 seconds. Król-Walas took bronze, the same medal she won in 2023.
But the final belonged to Ledecká. She proved too strong for the Japanese rider, sealing her first snowboard world title since her parallel giant slalom gold at Sierra Nevada in 2017.
"It's awesome," Ledecká told FIS after the race. "I haven't competed in a World Championships since 2017 because it was difficult with timing because of skiing events."
The pioneer's quiet milestone
The victory arrived six weeks after Ledecká won downhill bronze at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach. No other athlete has ever claimed medals at two different FIS World Championships inside a single winter.
She has now amassed three gold and two silver medals at snowboard World Championships since her first world title aged 19 in 2015. A quiet season holds two World Championship podiums, on two different sets of equipment, in two different disciplines.
