Ledecka's quest for Olympic three-peat comes to a shocking halt but a Czech gets the gold anyway

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LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — The fans from the Czech Republic clanged cowbells and waved their red-white-and-blue tricolor for a sun-splashed Olympic victory they simply knew was coming.

Then, they all looked down and checked their programs.

Their favorite speed racer, Ester Ledecka, her quest for a third straight title vanquished early, was a mere spectator Sunday when another Czech, eight years younger and without a single big-time win in her career, zoomed across the line to keep the gold medal in snowboarding's parallel giant slalom safely in the republic.

Her name: Zuzana Maderova.

“I can’t believe it now," the 22-year-old said, “but I’m an Olympic champion.”

A few hours after Lindsey Vonn wiped out on an Alpine downhill course a mountain range away in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Ledecka — and Maderova — reinforced the obvious to the Winter Olympic world: There are no sure things when these racers hit the slippery ice and snow.

“Suddenly, I made a mistake in the quarterfinals,” said Ledecka, who skittered and put her hand down at the sixth gate in the quarterfinal, costing her precious time and a chance at another title. “I did my best. It’s what can happen in this sport.”

Her country's president, Petr Pavel, came to Livigno expecting to celebrate a win. It was a good bet. Ledecka hadn't lost a PGS race in nearly two years or missed a podium in five.

But after the second round (quarterfinals) of head-to-head action in a single-elimination format, she was only a bystander.

Her opponent, Sabine Payer of Austria, won the quarterfinal by 0.06 seconds.

Asked what she would've done differently, Ledecka focused on her form.

“I would do the toe side much better. I would probably put my inner shoulder up and do it better,” she said.

Ledecka first shocked the Olympic world eight years ago when she became the first athlete to win gold medals in both a skiing and a snowboarding event. Even she didn't quite believe she had won the ski race. Nobody was surprised about the snowboarding.

She has been splitting time ever since — she'll head to Cortina for a super-G race next Thursday. But in deciphering the reasons for this shocking loss, her coach, Justin Reiter, said her nine ski races versus one in snowboarding in the leadup to Milan Cortina wasn’t that big a factor.

“I take the responsibility there, maybe not being as prepared as we could've been,” he told The Associated Press. “Adapting her training a little bit. ... She has so much more in the tank. She can ride so much faster. But she didn't gear up. She geared down.”

There were no such regrets from Maderova, and certainly not from Payer, who raced her way to the silver medal. She lost to Maderova by 0.83 seconds in the final, but will go down as the woman who took down this sport's GOAT.

“The win against Ester, I think it was not expected, I would say,” Payer said. “I knew I had to risk everything and go all-in. Mistakes can happen. I think she might have helped me a bit. I don't know how her run was, but I'm really, really happy.”

Ledecka’s loss now gives Austria’s Anna Gasser a chance to become the first snowboarder to win three straight Olympic titles. Gasser takes the hill in big air qualifying later Sunday. Also trying for a three-peat is Chloe Kim. Her halfpipe contest starts Wednesday.

The only repeat on this day belonged to Austria's Benjamin Karl, who won his second straight title, then celebrated by stripping off his shirt, doing a huge weightlifter flex, then falling, bare-chested, into the snow.

The 40-year-old Karl, who also has a silver and a bronze in his career, said that belly flop was a tribute to alpine skiing legend Hermann Maier. It was pure joy to cool off with the mountain sun beating down.

“We have four runs, it was really long, we are sweating full gas — it’s like you’re coming out from the sauna," he said. “I wanted to lay longer in the snow to cool down.”

The day also included an all-Italian race for third in the women's bracket; Lucia Dalmasso won it by 0.11 seconds and was weeping near the finish line. At the time, it marked Italy's sixth medal of the games and put the home country at the top of the medals table.

The men's third-place race was a photo finish that put Bulgaria into the medal column thanks to Tervel Zamfirov's lean at the line.

All in all, it was a wild, unpredictable day at the snow park for PGS, a sport whose Olympic future is under review, leaving Ledecka, 30, unsure of whether she'll get another chance for that third gold in 2030.

“I don't think anyone will give a (expletive) about what the athletes think, to be very honest," she said. "It's always like that with the Olympic committees. I wish this time will be different and they'll go see how much crowd we brought in, how excited everyone was, how amazing this race was and think, ‘Oh, why would we cancel this race?’”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics