Czech skier Ester Ledecka gets shoutout from Katie Ledecky after surprise gold
Katie Ledecky is sending some love from one similarly-named Olympic gold medalist to another.
Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecka shocked everyone on Saturday by winning a surprise gold medal in the women’s super-G alpine skiing competition. The dual-sport athlete beat out Austrian skier Anna Veith by a mere 0.01 seconds.
You'd be shocked, too.
Ester Ledecka, a world champion SNOWBOARDER, shocks the field to win a surprise-gold by 0.01 in alpine skiing women's super-G! #WinterOlympics https://t.co/YtEpNzDMDu pic.twitter.com/EeoHuALcKX
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 17, 2018
After the stunning victory, Ledecka got a fitting shoutout on Twitter from American swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky.
That's what Ledecka's do!!! @DanHicksNBC #PyeongChang2018
— Katie Ledecky (@katieledecky) February 17, 2018
Word of Ledecky’s shoutout appeared to reach Ledecka by the time that she spoke to reporters afterwards as she had this to say about her U.S. counterpart, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports:
Asked if she is related to Katie Ledecky, Ester Ledecka said: “I don’t know. I hope so.”
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 17, 2018
After her stretch of utter dominance at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Ledecky is probably thrilled that a namesake of hers is killing the game in PyeongChang as well. Then again, Ledecky might just be happy that she got to witness Ledecka’s out-of-nowhere run since many viewers actually did not.