Winter Olympics: Ester Ledecka retains snowboard parallel slalom title

Ester Ledecka is on course for a unique Winter Olympics double after retaining her women's snowboard parallel slalom title in Beijing.

The 26-year-old became the first woman to win gold in two different sports at the same Games when also landing the super-G title at Pyeongchang 2018.

The Czech won the snowboard event again in Beijing on Tuesday and will aim for back-to-back titles on skis on Friday.

«I hope I will switch myself very fast,» she said.

«It's a little bit difficult because part of my head is still racing right now on that (snowboard) course, and the other side of my head is already trying to get through the line on the skiing course.»

Austrian Daniela Ulbing took silver in the women's snowboard race, while Gloria Kotnik of Slovenia won the bronze.

In the men's parallel giant slalom final, Austria's Benjamin Karl beat Slovenia's Tim Mastnak in the final to clinch gold.

The bronze went to American-born Russian Vic Wild, a double gold medallist at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Elsewhere on day four of the Games, Austria's Matthias Mayer retained his Olympic super-G title to make history as the first men's alpine skier to win gold medals in three consecutive Games.

Mayer, who won his first super-G title in Pyeongchang in 2018 and also took downhill gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, clocked a winning time of one minute 19.94 seconds to add to Monday's downhill bronze medal.

American Ryan Cochran-Siegle took a surprise silver with a time 0.04 secs behind Mayer, with Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde claiming bronze.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet won the men's individual 20km biathlon as Anton Smolski of Belarus took silver and Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe bagged the bronze.