OLYMPICS, ALPINE SKIING. Whistler, BC ― The Men's alpine skiing downhill competition at Whistler Creekside originally scheduled for 11:45 am Pacific Time on Saturday, February 13 has been postponed to February 15 due to adverse weather. The new start time for the event will be determined and announced later today.

VANOC
Feb 13, 2010

Men's downhill rescheduled for Monday, February 15

"Right now we need the temperature to go down," men's race director Guenter Hujara said Friday night. "If it remains the same, I can say for sure there will be no downhill tomorrow."

As predicted continuing snow and rain throughout Friday night, along with expected mild temperatures, prompted officials to postpone the men's downhill event due to slushy conditions unsuitable for racing.

The race has been rescheduled for Monday, February 15, at 10:30 a.m. PST.

Scheduled to start 11:45 a.m. local time on Saturday, organizers called off the first Alpine skiing event at the Vancouver Olympics shortly after 4:00 a.m. local time, after warm weather and rain had already prompted both men's and women's downhill training sessions as well as the first women's event, the super-combined to be cancelled Friday.

The priority for officials now is to get the ladies downhill training in Sunday.

Located close to the Pacific Ocean, bad weather is a well known issue in Whistler and resulted in Whistler being removed from the World Cup circuit after races had to be called off for three consecutive years in the mid-1990s.

Weather problems are nothing new for Alpine events and especially Alpine races at the Olympics. The program has thus built in off-days to accommodate for rescheduling.

This said, only one of six training runs for men and ladies has so far been completed as planned.

The opening men's downhill training session on Wednesday was cancelled after 42 racers as thick fog prevented the remaining ones from starting their runs. A shortened men's training was completed Thursday and Friday's session was called off entirely.

Mother Nature proved to be an even greater problem for the ladies. The opening training session on Thursday was abandoned after only two skiers, one of which crashed. Both training runs on Friday and Saturday were also called off.

Based on existing rules, the ladies need to get one complete practice run in before a downhill or super-combined race can be held.

FISalpine.com
Saturday 13 February 2010