Snowboard champ Ledecka wins stunning gold in super-G skiing
Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic won perhaps the most unlikely gold medal of PyeongChang 2018, stunning the super-G crowd by taking home the gold, despite her specialty being snowboarding.
Ledecka won as the 26th racer, surpassing Austrian Anna Veith, who finished with silver, by 0.01 seconds. Veith, like everyone else, was shocked by the result, turning to someone after Ledecka's run to ask, "How did that happen?'' according to the Associated Press.
The win was so surprising that NBC had cut away from the coverage, naming Veith as the winner, assuming the remaining skiers wouldn't possibly have the top time.
Ledecka was already set to make Olympic history by becoming the first athlete to compete in both skiing and snowboarding events, but the top-ranked parallel giant slalom snowboarder could now take medals in two sports as well. Ledecka entered the games tied for the 43rd ranking in World Cup super-G; however, her specialty is snowboarding, having won all five parallel overall events in the 2017-2018 World Cup season and the parallel giant slalom championship last March.
The 22-year-old will compete in the women's parallel giant slalom on her board Feb. 22 at 10:00 p.m. ET (Feb. 23 at 12:00 p.m. local time).