The fans at the World Cup races in Špindlerův Mlýn will be able to see five Czech skiers. In order for them to take part in these races they had to place among the best 350 in their event in the FIC ranking. Which Czech skiers will the fans see, when Ester Ledecká, the Olympic gold medal winner, will be absent?
Gabriela Capová 25 years old 27 WC starts
This Czech skier has had 27 starts in World Cup races, having made her debut in Zagreb in January 2015. In March 2016 she was a member of a team that came ninth in the team event in St. Moritz. Just before going to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics she came nineteenth in the slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, which is her best World Cup result. She achieved the same result in the super-G in Killington, USA, in 2018. This year she got some points for 26th place in the slalom in Maribor.
Martina Dubovská 26 years old 68 WC starts
This native of Třinec made her World Cup debut in February 2011. With 68 World Cup starts she is the most experienced of the Czech skiers. After her debut in Arber, Germany, it wasn’t until November 2013, when she came 28th in Levi, that she got her first points. Since then she has placed in the best thirty racers eight more times, her best individual result being 18th place in the slalom in Semmering in 2016 and 19th place in the slalom in Squaw Valley in 2017. Like Capová, she came nineteenth as a team member in St. Moritz.
Kateřina Pauláthová 25 years old 58 WC starts
She began skiing at the age of two. She made her debut among the skiing elite in Sölden in October 2010. At the end of the season, at her third World Cup start, she got her first points in Špindlerův Mlýn for placing among the Top 30, having come 28th in the super-G. After that it wasn’t until 2015 that she got more points, having come 26th in the same event in Maribor. Her best result is twentieth place in the alpine combined in Crans-Montana in February 2017.
Tereza Kmochová 28 years old 7 WC starts
One of the world’s best deaf skiers! She already had total loss of hearing when she was born. She started skiing before her third birthday and her first trainers on the slopes of Harrachov were her mother, grandmother, grandfather and aunt. She has had seven starts in World Cup races. In the latest one, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, she came thirty-second. She has won seven gold medals at the Deflympics (Olympic Games for the deaf). She took part in the 2017 World Championship, and in 2018 she narrowly (by one place) failed to qualify for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Klára Pospíšilová 19 years old no WC starts
This will be the nineteen-year-old junior racer’s World Cup debut! She came thirty-fifth in the slalom in the recent World Junior Championship.