(ATR) Ester Ledecka laid down an Olympic game-changing performance in the ladies super-G.
In an absolute shocking turn of events, the Czech snowboarder blazed to a skiing gold medal, crossing the line 0.01 seconds ahead of Austrian race leader Anna Vieth.
Ledecka skied 26th, pulling off a colossal upset. Adding to the unbelievable drama, she nearly lost control and crashed upon landing off the final jump.
The 22-year-old – who juggles time training and racing between the two sports on the World Cup tour – will become the first athlete to ever compete in both alpine skiing and snowboarding at an Olympic Winter Games.
Her best ski World Cup result is a seventh place in the downhill last year although she has five podiums in snowboard this season.
Ledecka is a strong gold medal contender in the snowboard parallel giant slalom on Saturday, Feb. 24. She also intends on racing in the downhill and alpine combined.
Downhill gold medal favorite & 2010 Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn made a costly mistake approaching the bottom of the course and settled for a tie for sixth. Vonn will race two more events, the downhill and alpine combined. She is considered among the favorites in the downhill.
The 1,000th gold medal in Olympic Winter Games history goes to Japanese figure skating sensation Yuzuru Hanyu. The 23-year-old skater defended his Olympic gold from Sochi 2014, winning the men’s singles figure skating by nearly 10 points ahead of teammate Shoma Unu. Ledecka’s surprise victory in the early afternoon preceding Hanyu was gold medal number 999.
It is another cold and crisp, yet sunny day in PyeongChang. Afternoon temperatures are hovering around minus four Celsius, expected to drop to minus eight in the evening
Ticket Sale Update
PyeongChang 2018 says it has sold over 991,000 tickets so far, exceeding its goal for the 2018 Olympics.
The latest figures, relayed by spokesperson Baik You Sung, mean organizers have sold 92.8% of tickets for the Games. The one million ticket figure should be surpassed today, Sung said.
The Lunar New Year holiday was a boon to organizers according to Sung. PyeongChang 2018 had a record sales day reporting sales of 92,000 in a single day this week. More spectators reportedly have also started travelling to the Olympic Plaza to view medal ceremonies. Sung said that yesterday 30,000 spectators visited the plaza, up from a rate of 10,000 a day early last week.
Still, even with huge ticket sales, organizers are facing questions of venue attendance. Sung said that some of the issues are late arrivals to the venues, and groups who bought tickets not arriving. The men’s figure skating free skate began with about two-thirds of the seats filled but by Hanyu’s performance, the arena was all but full.
Sun said that organizers have not considered allowing spectators in the Olympic Park to fill empty seats because it is impossible to predict when ticket holders will arrive.
Athletes have commented on the lack of spectators at the finish line of alpine events, and organizers said in the past Korea’s lack of winter sports tradition could be playing a role. Organizers are also dealing with the issue of scalpers, trying to resell Olympic tickets. Such practices are illegal in South Korea.
"There was news about people who were committing scalping and I am not sure how it turned out to be, but scalping is not allowed in Korea," Sung said. "There were some people who were attempting to sell their tickets on the internet. So of course this is problematic, but it also evidence the competition are very popular."
Written by Brian Pinelli and Aaron Bauer in PyeongChang
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