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Ongoing snowfall forced Milan-Cortina Olympic organizers to cancel the opening women’s downhill training session scheduled for Thursday.
Some 20 centimetres have fallen on the Olympia delle Tofane course this week and the white stuff was still coming down Wednesday evening in Cortina.
It was forecast to continue snowing overnight.
“You have seen the heavy snowfall is ongoing and the weather forecast does not allow us to reasonably plan the training for tomorrow,” Peter Gerdol, International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) chief race director, said at the team captains’ meeting.
“We will definitely concentrate all our efforts tomorrow and then we will be staying in the plan as well. We will concentrate all our efforts to be ready for Friday’s morning training, which is the main goal now.”
Added Thierry Robert-Luciani, a meteorologist for FIS: “Intense snowfall is forecast in the coming night and snowfall is expected to stop in the middle of the day tomorrow.”
Thursday was slated to be the first of three training sessions. Two more were scheduled for Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s downhill race. At least one training session needs to be held before the race can start, according to the rules.
New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, who will take part in the downhill training runs and in the super-G and giant slalom, told reporters Wednesday she was sure everything would be fine come race day.
“They always do a great job here, so even with the new snow, I’m sure it’s going to be good,” she said.
The cancellation of Thursday’s run means Lindsey Vonn, the 2010 downhill Olympic champion, and still among the bookies’ favourites for Sunday’s race, will have to wait another day to test her left knee after she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in a crash at a World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, last Friday.
The 41-year-old speed queen, who has finished in the top three of all five downhill World Cup events this season, said on Tuesday she still intended to race.
Lindsey Vonn to wear brace in Olympic downhill for ‘ruptured’ knee ligament
After rupturing the ACL in her left knee in a crash on Friday, American ski star Lindsey Vonn says she is “confident” she can compete at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with a knee brace.