Men’s super combined postponed, women’s training cancelled

SNOWED IN: An Olympic staff clears snow during an official training session of the ski jumping large hill at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Tuesday. Photo: AP

The Olympic alpine skiing programme was reshuffled yet again on Tuesday when overnight snowfall forced the cancellation of the men’s super combined race.

The latest flakes from above and a soft piste made competition impossible on the day and women’s downhill training also had to scrapped.

“Due to heavy snowfall throughout the night and soft conditions on the lower track today’s men’s super-combined has been postponed,” the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in a statement.

Under a new men’s plan which is most likely to be implemented, the super-combined is now due for Friday, the super-g moves from Friday to Sunday and the giant slalom from Sunday to next Tuesday.

The women are to race as planned on Wednesday (downhill), Thursday (super combined moved from Sunday) and Saturday (super—g). Organizers are slowly running out of reserve days as only one race instead of three has so far been held, the men’s downhill on Monday, two days after its original slot. Seven planned training runs have also been wiped out by a mix of fog, snow, rain, warm temperatures and soggy pistes in the past seven days.

The men and women had only their one mandatory training run ahead of the downhill instead of three planned practice rounds each.

The skiers have remained calm with German team alpine director Wolfgang Maier saying: “It really doesn’t bother us and it doesn’t put a damper on the atmosphere.” Alpine skiing is an outdoor sport and the weather has played havoc with previous big skiing events.

The women’s combined was split over two days at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and their super-g held a day later than planned. Seven of 10 events were run later than planned 1998 in Nagano, the men’s downhill five days behind schedule.

The women’s and men’s downhills were also delayed 1984 in Sarajevo.

At world championships, most races had to be rescheduled and the men’s super-g was even scrapped in 1993 in Morioka, Japan. Lack of snow then forced the entire 1995 worlds in Sierra Nevada, Spain, to be moved to the following year.