I love the story of Ester Ledecká’s double gold in both skiing and snowboarding at the 2018 Olympics, but not because of the ski/snowboard rivalry. I like this story because of what it says about how much our sports gain through collaborative competition.
When I ride with skiers I find our differences in line choice, terrain usage, and tactics for approaching situations make for great discussions and opportunities to challenge ourselves by adapting others’ perspectives. Did Ester win because she looked at the course differently? Or because her athletic training from both sports gave her an advantage?
There are going to be heaps of conversations and different versions of dissecting of what happened last night, but what I know is I can improve my riding by riding with skiers and occasionally putting on skis myself, and similarly, our two-planked friends can learn from following our lines and maybe even taking a snowboard lesson!
Tune in for more thoughts in this edition of First Chair, Last Call with George Thomas.