Ledecka's quest for Olympic snowboarding 3-peat comes to a shocking halt

Ester Ledecka's quest to become the first snowboarder to win gold medals at three straight Olympics came to a surprisingly early end Sunday.

She lost her quarterfinal race in the sport's parallel giant slalom by 0.06 seconds to Austria's Sabine Payer.

Instead of Ledecka, the gold medal went to another Czech racer. It was Zuzana Maderova, a 22-year-old with no World Cup wins who opened a gap on the slip-sliding Payer and blew her away by 0.83 seconds in the gold-medal race for her first victory in a major event.

The only repeat on this day belonged to Austria's Benjamin Karl, who won his second straight title, then celebrated by stripping off his shirt, doing a huge weightlifter flex, then falling, bare-chested, into the snow.

Ledecka was a spectator for all of it after coming into the Milan Cortina Games as a big favorite for gold. She hadn't lost a PGS World Cup race in almost two years and hadn't missed a podium in five.

She dominated through the qualifying heats, finishing her two time trials a full .69 seconds faster than the next-best racer to draw top seeding in the 16-woman bracket. That second-place racer was Maderova, and in a sign of how the Czech Republic dominates this sport right now, nobody else was within 1.39 seconds of her.

But in the second round of head-to-head action, Ledecka was done. Payer bolted out to an early lead, carved tight lines between the gates and never trailed. She adds this silver medal to two wins on the World Cup circuit this season.

Arnaud Gaudet of Montcalm, Que., was the top Canadian in the event, reaching the men's quarterfinals before being eliminated. Toronto's Ben Heldman did not advance past the qualification round.

On the women's side, Kaylie Buck of Oakville, Ont., and