Snowboarding
For historic two-sport champion Ester Ledecká, limits exist to be overcome
By pulling double duty and winning on the world's biggest stages in both snowboarding and alpine skiing, making winter sports history has become second nature to Czech heroine Ester Ledecká.
What you need to know Czech sporting heroine Ester Ledecká is this: she's one of the few athletes ever to have genuinely rewritten the history books. How did she do it? The 30-year-old is the first person in history to win Winter Olympics gold medals in both skiing and snowboarding at the same games – a truly remarkable feat.
Ledecká changed the face of winter sports at the PyeongChang 2018 Games when she won a surprise Super-G gold as the 49th ranked skier on the hill and then followed that up with another gold in the snowboard parallel giant slalom, becoming not only the first person to win Olympic gold on both skis and snowboard, but also the first to win gold in two sports at the same Games. Only one athlete had ever won gold in two different sports previously – Russia's Anfisa Reztsova in biathlon and cross-country skiing – but not at the same games.
Considering Ledecká had only raced her FIS Alipne Skiing World Cup race two years previously, her Olympic double was an incredible feat and in the years since the native of Prague has gone on to establish herself as one of the truly great multi-sport athletes in the world, not only in winter sport. With a calm head, an infectious smile and the ability to take on even the biggest challenges with an easy-going nature, Ledecká is a phenomenon who's transcended the world of winter sports. Here's how she got here.
Ester Ledecká is a winter sport icon and historic record-breaker
© Pascal Muller/Red Bull Content Pool
01
Ester Ledecká's deep winter sports roots
Ledecká was born on March 23, 1995 in Prague to a family where sport and art naturally intertwined. Her grandfather, Jan Klapáč, was an ice hockey world champion and Olympic medallist while her mother Zuzana is a former figure skater. Meanwhile, her father Janek Ledecký is one of the Czechia's most famous musicians and brother, Jonáš, is an artist who designs her racing suits. It's one talented family.
"I was on skis at the age of two and I discovered snowboarding at five," Ledecká recalls. "Even then I told my mother that one day I would win the Olympics in both sports. You can see it wasn't just a little girl's idle talk."
Crucial to her future approach to her sports, she saw sport as a natural part of her life from a young age, not a chore to be done under parental pressure: "I never told myself that it's not fun now, it's work. And I'm glad for that, because the pressure would have been crazy."
I'm either winning and I want to be even better, or I'm not winning and I want to be better. That's what drives me
02
Hitting the snowboarding world stage
Clearly talented and on course to pro career on the snow in one discipline or another, a teenage Ledecká was encouraged by her coaches to focus on one thing. So, parallel slalom snowboarding became the priority and Ledecká made her World Cup debut in the 2012–13 season, where she finished 13th. Just a year later, she dominated the Junior World Championships and confirmed that Czechia had a new winter sports star up its sleeve.
They didn't have long to wait for a celebration. In 2015, Ledecká claimed her first senior World Championship and went on to dominate the overall World Cup standings for consecutive seasons 2016 and 2019.
"I'm either winning and I want to be even better, or I'm not winning and I want to be better. That's what drives me all the time," she says with her typical calm ease.
03
Returning to skiing and the miracle of Pyeongchang
Although the world had associated Ledecká with snowboarding domination, she quietly returned to competitive alpine skiing in 2016. It was a unnatural combination at first glance and heavy work load, but one that comes completely natural to her: "Everything that happens on the hill is physics, gravity and centrifugal force."
Pulling double World Cup duty during a race-packed 2016–17 season, Ledecká was clearly inching towards the world-class alpine skiing performances that she was aiming for. However, what happened next still shocked the sporting world.
Ledecká was deliberately low key when she first joined the ski World Cup
© Erich Spiess/ASP/Red Bull Content Pool
Ranked the 49th Super-G skier in the world as the 2108 Pyeongchang Games kicked-off in South Korea, Ledecká skied the perfect race to upset the established stars of the sport and win the gold medal over Austria's Anna Veith by one hundredth of a second despite never having stood on a ski World Cup podium before.
It was a phenomenal performance from the then 22-year-old and then a week she made Olympic history by added gold in the snowboard parallel giant slalom to became the first athlete in history to win gold in two different sports at one Games. It was actually two records Ledecká broke that day, because just by lining up for the parallel giant slalom final, she also became the first athlete to compete in two separate sports in a Winter Games.
04
Injuries, comebacks and peace of mind
With history made and eyes of the sporting world on her, success didn't changed Ledecká. Rather, it taught her the importance of maintaining inner balance.
Her ability to seemingly shake off any pressure is legendary
© Gabriele Facciotti/Red Bull Content Pool
When a race is big deal, I can still get comfortable
"When a race is a big deal, I can still get comfortable. After a year without skis and two surgeries, I came back and realised that I was calmed by the moment: left-right, being in the here and now," she explains.
She also takes injury as part of the job, not a personal tragedy; "I never felt like I wasn't motivated. Even during injury, I'm working full time with a physiotherapist, visualising and recovering. It's work."
05
A season of records and three medals in two sports
After the 2018 season, Ledecká continued her dual sport journey, competing in downhill, Super-G and the combined on skis alongside her snowboard duties. It didn't take her long to score her first World Cup win, bagging the Lake Louise downhill win first in December 2019 and then adding a triumph in Super-G almost exactly a year later.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games she defended her snowboard parallel giant slalom title, taking her Olympic gold medals tally to three, since then Ledecká has continued to add alpine skiing World Cup wins and podiums to her name, becoming a legit contender in every discipline.
Full commitment from Ledecká at in 2025 world champs downhill race
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
The bronze medal and another historic record set was her reward
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
She hasn't finished on her spree of making history, either and during the 2025 she did it again when she became the first female athlete to win three World Championship medals in two different sports in a single season.
06
The team behind Ester Ledecká's success
Ledecká's results are backed not only by talent, but also by the sophisticated team helping her every step of the way. "I'm lucky that my team is so diverse: an Italian, an Austrian, an American and two Czechs," she says. "Everyone knows what they are doing and there are no quarrels."
Ledecká's close-knit team are a huge part of her successes
© Erich Spiess/Red Bull Content Pool
I'm lucky my team is so diverse: an Italian, an Austrian, an American and two Czechs. Everyone knows what they're doing and there are no quarrels
Her days have a clear rhythm: "Warm-up in the morning, four hours on the hill, bike in the afternoon, recovery and video analysis. I know what's coming and when. My head works well in that model."
07
Greek getaways: Ledecká's life away from the slopes
Understandably for someone spends so much of her life on cold, snowy mountainsides, when the winter season is over, Ledecká likes to disappear somewhere warm. In her case to a second home in Greece. "In the summer there I train my balance by windsurfing, wakeboarding and riding jet skis. And when the wind's not blowing, I'll play beach volleyball, kickbox, swim and walk the hills."
If Ledecká does have a vice, somewhat surprisingly for someone used to living life at high speed, she'd pick tardiness: "Sometimes I'm quite late. My physiotherapist has devised a punishment that if I'm five minutes late, I have to kiss his foot. 10 minutes late, I have sing the national anthem. I'd rather kiss that foot."
Music is another thread that connects the Ledecky family: "I can play guitar, piano and flute. I sing all the time, mostly in the bathroom, but someday I hope I can do a duet with my dad."
Her playlist is eclectic, ranging from Bryan Adams and Lenny Kravitz to Vivaldi and Kabat: "I don't have a set style. Music is energy." She's equally taken with dance. "I enjoy it, even if I can't really do it. It's about joy, not rhythm."
Ledecká is also an agency founder and hopes to help guide young athletes
© Jan Kasl/Red Bull Content Pool
08
Starting an agency to help other athletes
Together with her mother and manager, Ledecká has also started a sports marketing agency, called All STR team. The agency combines sports experience, marketing education and a personal approach. In fact, Ledecká has completed a master's degree in marketing communications herself.
"So far, I'm the only athlete, testing how the agency works. But we want to help others like Red Bull helped me," she explains. "Once I'm finished competing, I want to devote myself fully to the agency. and helping other athletes to have the same background that I had."