Czech skier and snowboarder Ester Ledecká during a press conference before the start of the new season Source: Profimedia
PRAGUE – Czech skier and snowboarder Ester Ledecká is still a mess in training, her team tames her and adjusts her doses. When the going gets tough, snowboarding coach Justin Reiter, for example, threatens her with several days off.
The three-time Olympic champion revealed this at Thursday’s press conference. From last season, she jumped right into preparing for the next one, she is not looking for a rest vacation.
Last year, Ledecká was coming back from a broken collarbone, which, with the exception of a few snowboard races, ruled her out of the 2022/23 season. She was limited by whooping cough in the winter, but at the end of the season she shone with a win in the super giant slalom at the World Cup final in Saalbach. “I think we blew it well. The start was so slow, but in the end it had a nice final” she praised herself.
From the SP final in Austria, she went straight to snowboarding for two weeks and then skied. With small breaks, she was on the snow until June. She smoothly continued with the traditional summer fitness training in Greece, where she surfs a lot. She had no vacation. “I can’t imagine lying on a deckchair and sunbathing. I keep moving,” said the 29-year-old Czech woman.
From Lefkada, she headed to a snowboard camp in Europe and then spent five weeks skiing in Chile with the team. She stopped in Prague for a while before flying off again for the snow. She would never say out loud that she couldn’t anymore. Her surroundings must know that.
Photo gallery (2) Source: SITA/AP/Alessandro Trovati
“I have a great physiotherapist, Laďa Polášek, who is with me skiing and snowboarding and during summer training. He sees the big picture. He knows what I have been through. He knows how my body is. He is sometimes very strict that I need won’t allow me to lift the weights I’d like,” she was talking.
Her snowboard coach Reiter has a similar approach when he announces his last ride. “He threatens that otherwise I’ll have three days off. He starts picking gates. Such things happen every day. In the final, I’m grateful that the boys guard me like this.” the three-time Olympic champion explained with a smile.
At the camp in Chile, she trained and at the same time tested skis for the new season. It didn’t work last year at the South American camp because it was very windy, which distorted the times.
“I get lost in what Tschunti (serviceman Gunthram Mathis) is testing. He took some 42 pairs of skis to Chile for those five weeks. He takes about six pairs to the hill every day. Even though sometimes we only do four runs when he that’s some tough downhill. We now have a much better overview of what kind of skis we have and how fast they are.”
i’m batman
Physically, he feels significantly better than last year. “I think the body works well. I think we managed the preparation with honor,” she praised herself. Only as a team they talked less and less together at the camp over time. “At the end, it was already such short sentences. Physiotherapist Lád Polášek and I just exchanged glances. Since we had the submarine, the communication took over.” said Ledecka.
But she didn’t consider it a problem. “It doesn’t even particularly bother me. Then I’m in my cave like batman. I climb out of the cave, go skiing, then I go back in. It suits me, only when I return to normal life, I’m out of it.” she confided.
- Author: © List/
- Source: CTK
