Ledecká does not pay as much attention to skiing slalom as she does to other disciplines. Nevertheless, it has already achieved several remarkable results. Two years ago in Crans Montana, she finished third, at last year’s World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo she was fourth after the super-G and dropped to eighth in the slalom.
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There, the American Mikaela Shiffrin won, who in the combination would like to forget about the unsuccessful performance on the ski slope in Yenching. One big opponent dropped her off. Slovak Petra Vlhová, second in combination at the last World Championship, will not start at the Games after the winning slalom due to ankle problems.
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In the figure skater competition, the Russian trio is ahead of the free rides. However, due to the doping affair, the medal for leader Kamila Valijevová will probably be uncertain for a long time to come and the ceremony will not take place. After a record performance in a short program, Eliška Březinová will defend the twelfth place, which is much higher than where her previous marks have placed her.
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| Thursday program of the Beijing Olympic Games (finals and Czech participation): |
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| Watch online from today >>> |
| 3:30 downhill skiing – women’s combination – downhill (Ledecká) |
| 4:30 Women’s Skikros – Qualification (Kučerová) |
| 5:10 Women’s Hockey Final: Canada – USA |
| 7:00 Women’s Ski Cross – Final |
| 7:00 downhill skiing – women’s combination – slalom |
| 9:00 Nordic combined – men’s team jump (CZ) |
| 9:30 speed skating – 1000m women (Zdráhalová) |
| 11:00 figure skating women – free program (Březinová) |
| 12:00 Nordic Combined Relay 4×5 km Men (CZ) |
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In women’s hockey, only Canada and the United States have taken turns on the throne since the 1998 Olympic premiere in Nagano, and it won’t be any different in Beijing. Four years ago, the Americans interrupted the winning series of maple leaf lands in separate raids.
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Last year at the World Championships in Calgary, however, the Canadians won in overtime and in Beijing in the basic group they won 4: 2. Their captain Marie-Philip Poulinová decided the finals in Vancouver, Sochi and the last world championship with her goals and now she longs for the third Olympic gold.
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Kučerová is waiting for her third Olympic start
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Kučerová, a cross-country skier, is getting ready for her third Olympic start. Four years ago in Pyongyang, she finished in fourteenth place at the gates of the semifinals. In the current World Cup season, she was seventh best in December in Innichen, Italy. Sweden’s Sandra Näslund is almost invincible, having won nine of ten World Championships this season, including the November test at the Secret Garden. Kučerová did not advance from the qualification.
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Japanese speed skater Miho Takagi already has three silver medals in Beijing and in the team fighter race she was deprived of gold only by the fall of her sister Nana in the last turn. She will have another chance on the kilometer track, on which she has already won one World Cup this season.
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But American Brittany Bowe has even better results on the kilometer. Zdráhalová will try to improve her position from the top three, where she finished eighteenth, and after the embarrassing results so far, to tune in better to the final race with a mass start.
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Czech speed skater Nikola Zdráhalová.Photo: Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
The Nordic combined program will end on Thursday with the team race and four-time world champion Nor Jarl Magnus Riiber will be left without a medal. The covid deprived him of the first start, he aimed for gold during the second, but he got lost on the track and will not start in the relay.
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Even without him, the Norwegians have a strong team, Jörgen Graabak won gold and silver in Beijing and Jens Luraas Oftebro won silver. But for the first time after the quarantine, the Germans can deploy three-time Olympic champion Eric Frenzel, and the hastily appointed substitute Manuel Faisst took fourth place.
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Among the ten teams at the start will be the Czech quartet, in which Ondřej Pažout, Lukáš Daněk and Tomáš Portyk defend the seventh place from Pyongyang. Only Martin Dvořák’s place in the team is Jan Vytrval, who was 18th in the last individual race in the last individual race.
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