Winter Olympic history-maker Ledecka wins third Games gold

Zhangjiakou, China, Feb 8, 2022 - Dual winter sports champion Ester Ledecka successfully defended her snowboard parallel giant slalom title at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday -- even if she did not immediately realise it.

The 26-year-old Czech became the first woman to win gold in two different sports at a Winter Olympics when she took skiing and snowboarding titles in Pyeongchang four years ago.

She won snowboard parallel giant slalom gold again in the Chinese capital when she cruised to victory in the final against Austria's Daniela Ulbing.

But Ledecka did not immediately realise that she was an Olympic champion again.

"I was concentrating on each run and I was still thinking about what I could do better in the next run," she said. "And then I realised that there wasn't going to be any other run."

Ledecka will now switch to skis and attempt to win another gold medal in the super-G on Friday.

"I'm very happy that I can do so many races and I hope I will switch myself very fast," she said. Slovenia's Gloria Kotnik took bronze.

Austria's Benjamin Karl won gold in the men's parallel giant slalom, beating Slovenia's Tim Mastnak in the final.

"As a child of 10 I wrote that I would be world champion, I would be the fastest racer in the world and I would be Olympic champion," said Karl.

"The last one was missing and I did everything in the last years to prepare for the Olympics."

American-born Russian Vic Wild, a double gold medallist at the 2014 Sochi Games, took the men's bronze medal.News Desk