Vonn Sixth as Ledecka Stuns Super-G Favorites

One mistake may have cost Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) a shot at another Olympic medal. But it was one fast snowboarder who took a second Olympic super-G gold away from Austria’s Anna Veith.

Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic, the World Cup overall snowboard parallel giant slalom leader and the odds-on favorite for Olympic gold in PGS, came out of the 26th start position to win the super-G gold medal, and pick up her first-ever alpine skiing podium finish, Saturday at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre Saturday. Veith, the defending Olympic super-G gold medalist took the silver, and Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein won the bronze, her first Olympic medal.

After an hour's delay due to high winds, Vonn, running bullet with bib 1, was well on her way to laying down a medal-contending run until she came in wide on the third to final gate, scrubbing precious speed before crossing the line.

“I thought running bib 1 was either going to be really great or really bad, and it didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped,” Vonn said. "I left it all out on the hill … I just made one mistake, and that cost me a medal. It’s ski racing, and that’s why it’s so difficult to win at the Olympics because literally, anything can happen.”

Weirather, hoping to duplicate the Olympic gold medals won by her mother at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, came down bib 7 and moved atop the leaderboard by 0.01-seconds over Switzerland’s Lara Gut. Weirather’s time held until Veith came down 15th and took the lead by 0.10-seconds.

The celebration for Austria was just getting started when Ledecka gave everyone a reason to look at the venue video board. Leading at the final two splits set the stage for the upset until she caught massive air off the final jump. But after landing on the back of her skis, and rocketing across the finish line, she stunned everyone, including herself, finishing just 0.01-seconds ahead of Veith and winning the first alpine skiing gold medal for the Czech Republic.

Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho) finished 14th in her Olympic debut. Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) was 15th, followed by Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, Colo.), also making her Olympic debut, in 16th.

“Our results today as a team were amazing,” McKennis said. “I feel good about my run. It wasn’t perfect. I made some mistakes. Unfortunately, one was going into the flats, which is not the best place to make a mistake, but I was pushing and had no hesitation in how I was skiing.”

Up next, the women open three scheduled days of downhill training beginning Sunday. The downhill is scheduled for Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. KT / 9:00 p.m. EST Tuesday.

RESULTS
Women’s super-G