Parallel Giant Slalom, Women

An intriguing event all about speed, the women’s parallel giant slalom competition at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games was held on 24 February at the Bogwang Phoenix Park. The shorter parallel slalom race from Sochi 2014 was dropped to add in the big air to the Olympic programme.

The granddaughter of two-time Olympic medalist ice hockey player Jan Klapáč, snowboarder Ester Ledecká from Czech Republic had long dominated the parallel giant slalom (PGS) world, winning gold at the World Championships in 2015 and 2017. A two-sport athlete, prior to the PGS in PyeongChang, Ledecka competed in alpine skiing’s super-G where she came out of nowhere on borrowed ski’s from Mikaela Shiffrin’s to win an unexpected Olympic title by 0.01 seconds in one of the most insane races in Olympic history. The two-time World snowboarding champion shocked the alpine ski world and with one Olympic gold medal already around her neck, Ledecká was still the odds-on favourite for the parallel giant slalom title in 2018.

Also podium threats were the Sochi 2014 parallel slalom champion Austrian Julia Dujmovits, Sochi bronze medalist Russia’s Alyona Zavarzina, and two strong German World Cup performers Ramona Hofmeister and her teammate Selina Jörg.

The defending medalists from Sochi 2014 were unable to recapture medals this time around. Silver medalist Tomoka Takeuchi from Japan was just edged out by Jörg in the quarter-finals, and gold medalist Patrizia Kummer of Switzerland was unable to advance against eventual winner Ledecká. Austria’s Ina Meschik who was just off the podium in fourth in Sochi, was unable to advance against Hofmeister.

So, a week after winning alpine gold in PyeongChang, Ledecká became the first woman to win Olympic Winter Games golds in different sports in the same Games, only the third athlete to ever accomplish this, the first since 1932, and one of just five in Winter Olympics history to win a gold medal in two separate sports. She simply would have made history by just competing, as no woman had ever competed in both alpine skiing and snowboarding in the same Olympic Winter Games.

Ledecká won the Big Final by 0.46 seconds against Jörg, and Hofmeister won the Small Final by 4.07 seconds against Zavarzina, who seemed to momentarily slip in both races (against Jörg in the semi-final heat and against Hofmeister in the Small Final). The silver medal went to Jörg, and the bronze went to Hofmeister. Zavarzina came in fourth place just off the podium.