Analogy for Ledecka's gold medals in skiing and snowboarding?

[Jim Kenney]

Analogy for Ledecka's gold medals in skiing and boarding?


Ester Ledecka won women's Olympic gold medals in skiing Super-G and snowboarding Parallel Giant slalom. I think it's an amazing accomplishment in this era of extreme specialization in sports. She is the first athlete to ever compete in Olympic skiing and snowboarding, much less win gold in both...and in the same Olympic Games. She was a big upset for her skiing victory, but supposedly a favorite in her snowboarding event. They are calling her Snow Jackson (after the multi-talented Bo Jackson). Some others athletes that come to mind for me in this context are old timers Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson, and Babe Ruth. It will be fun to see how the new Japanese phenom Shohei Otani develops as a MLB pitcher and hitter.


Skiing and snowboarding obviously have similarities with regard to sliding on snow, but the tools are fundamentally different IMHO. I am trying to come up with an analogy in two other sports for what she accomplished?


What do you think would be a comparable accomplishment in two other sports? Being a champion in:

football/rugby,

hockey/lacrosse,

baseball/cricket,

surfing/snowboarding,

track-marathon/Nordic skiing,

etc?

 

[Tom Holtmann]

Shawn White is/was elite world class in Snowboarding/Skateboarding.

 

[cantunamunch]

You mean like Eric Heiden ?

Bonnie Blair was a track cyclist at one point, but certainly not at championship level.

 

[Jim McDonald]

I once played golf with a late-20s guy who'd been an Olympic alternate on the Japan speed skating team, and was competing at the top level of Japanese professional bicycle racing. He hit the ball a mile!

 

[robertc3]

Canadian Clara Hughes won Olympic medals in both speed skating and cycling, but those are not two different events in the same Olympics. Neither event requires the incredible technical skill Ledecka displayed.

 

[crgildart]

There was a guy a little older than me who used to post on these forums. He won his age group at NASTAR Nationals several times, on both GS skis and Snowboards. So, when Ledecka did it in the same Olympics I wasn't really all that surprised that she was a great champion snowboarder. I was more amazed that someone out of the top 30 won gold at anything regardless of their other skills and talents..

 

[Wade]

I think the sports both need to be individual sports to be comparable to what she achieved.

Something like tennis and squash, perhaps.

 

[raytseng]

The best analogy would be a motor sports racing one, but fundamentally different racing. Like car racing+some kind of motocycle racing. You understand the concepts, but fundamentally different in skills.

 

[crgildart]

How about winning a big surf event and water ski slalom event??

 

[focker]

The best analogy would be a motor sports racing one, but fundamentally different racing. Like car racing+some kind of motocycle racing. You understand the concepts, but fundamentally different in skills.

This was my first thought. Someone who raced Motorcycles then switched to cars when they older (maybe smarter)

 

[Jim McDonald]

John Surtees, for example?

 

[raytseng]

but reminder, the clincher is, it's not switch, or take one as a second career after you're washed up; but do both simultaneously the same season and the same olympics.

 

[Jim McDonald]

Pretty awesome, IMHO

 

[robertc3]

The best analogy would be a motor sports racing one, but fundamentally different racing. Like car racing+some kind of motocycle racing. You understand the concepts, but fundamentally different in skills.

Travis Pastrana won on both motorcycles and rally cars at the 2006 X games.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Ester made the big news at this Olympics; however, there was another person that accomplished a similar feat. Jorien ter Mors won bronze in short track and gold in long track speedskating.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Leave it to someone to have a whole wiki on Olympic athletes that medalled in two different sports:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_athletes_with_Olympic_medals_in_different_sports

It appears that the most common pairs include

• Bobsleigh and Luge or Skeleton
• Cross Country Skiing and Nordic Combined
• Diving and Swimming
• Swimming and Water Polo

This has all become pretty rare in the last 30 years. The most interesting I saw was rowing and cycling.

 

[robertc3]

The most interesting I saw was rowing and cycling.

What about Tug of War and Wrestling? Maybe Tug of War is the event we should bring back. Put them on the snow and we have a new winter event.

 

[checkracer]

Multiple champions of the early years of today´s sports can hardly apply here. Different times. The good old Coubertin in Athens 1896 met a tourist somewhere in the city, told him about the Games and talked him into taking part. The good tourist became Olympic champion.

1936: ski jumper Birger Ruud won both Olympic DH in Garmisch and jumping competition as well. Unfortunately for him, only combined (DH + SL) was a medal contest. “Multiskiers” mastering both alpine and nordic disciplines were quite common then and the 4-event-race (DH, SL, XC, jumping, 3-event sans jumping for women) existed till the early 1950s.

Btw, our multiple speedskating champion Sablikova was training hard for her Rio 2016 Olympic bicycle race. She was considered a serious medal contender. The Czech officials somehow misinterpreted the qualification criteria, thought she had been qualified but she was not. Late appeals helped none.

 

[cantunamunch]

The most interesting I saw was rowing and cycling.

Talking of which, Wiggins didn't really show well, though his retraining is still in its early stages.

 

[Bolder]

What about Carl Lewis, long jump and sprints? I agree with the John Surtees and Shaun White comparison.

Ledecka's feat was incredible. Now, if she'd won a freestyle or halfpipe/big air on a snowboard, THAT would be historic. In both instances she was running gates on snow with a board, though riding sideways.