The Beijing Olympics men’s downhill, one of the Games’ signature events, was postponed Sunday because of high winds.
“The jury together with the organisers have decided in the best interest of safety and fairness for the racers to delay,” organisers said.
“More information on a new date and start time will be communicated as soon as it is confirmed.”
The blue riband event of alpine skiing had been scheduled to start at 11:00am (0300 GMT), but was delayed three times in the hope that the gusty wind would die down.
It was not to be, however, leaving organisers with no option but to postpone the race, just as they did at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, for the same reason.
“We just have to be patient and make sure we make the right decisions no matter what happens,” said Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the hot favourite in the event.
“We can’t do much about it. But if it’s only just a little bit, so it’s safe for us to ski, we might just have to race with wind and take what we get. It’s an alpine sport.”
Kilde added: “It’s just a lack of energy when you have such a long day and then they wait until 2:00 pm to make a decision. Let’s see if they can make the decision earlier in the future.”
French veteran Johan Clarey, at 41 the elder statesman of the circuit and official athletes’ representative, said skiers were under no illusion that they could race in the wind as long as it did not pose a danger.
“But it was long, staying under pressure for three, four hours,” he said.
“This morning it was blowing like each time we did a pre-race inspection (for training). If it’s as windy as it was for those inspections each time, it’ll be impossible to do anything.”
Wind also caused the cancellation of Saturday’s third and final training run down the “Rock” course in Yanqing on a hill previously untested by racers because World Cup events in both 2020 and 2021 could not take place due to Covid-19 restrictions in China.
Although cancelled, three racers did come down that final training run before that decision was taken, notably Kilde, to the anger of the rest of the field who argued it could have given the Norwegian an advantage.
“Yesterday I was one of the guys who got to ski, so I was quite lucky, but today seemed like they did something really good,” Kilde said.
Kilde may be the bookmakers’ favourite, but he faces competition from World Cup overall leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, his teammate Beat Feuz and the Austrian pair of current double world speed champion Vincent Kriechmayr and two-time Olympic gold medallist Matthias Mayer.
lp/gj
© Agence France-Presse
