The dark clouds are hanging over the Vancouver Olympics, in both theliteral and figurative sense, as the first marquee event of the Games -the men's downhill ski race at Whistler - was postponed until at leastMonday. www3.tvboxnow.com/ |& N$ c& R. X; b% @1 S
Only a few hours after the glittering opening ceremonyin Vancouver, organizers issued the official postponement for the raceon the Dave Murray course "due to adverse weather." The statement saida start time for the event will be determined and announced laterSaturday. tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb' c5 B1 d; a' d
The delay came as no surprise to those who had waitedout in a persistent drizzle at Whistler's Village Square Friday nightto greet Canadian athletes who are based at the mountain venues andcould not attend the official opening and ceremonial lighting of thecauldron by hockey icon Wayne Gretzky in Vancouver. www3.tvboxnow.com6 l- O# w, {5 R/ r! Y
Officialsalready had put off the scheduled women's super combined race fromSunday to Monday because of warm conditions. The women still have notbeen able to complete a training run on the downhill portion of Franz'srun, which would be part of the super combined competition. Officialshad hoped to get a training run off Sunday. % W& |5 B# x5 eNeither the men northe women were able to train Friday, with conditions in the finisharea, shared by both the Dave Murray and Franz's courses, soft andslushy. Race officials said it would have taken a significant drop intemperatures for Saturday's race to go ahead. That didn't happen. 3 ?, r7 k+ P* Z' t4 r* p2 t
Monday was already scheduled as a training day for the men, in the super combined event. - }7 c( z9 u, h3 k8 n
Thestatement from Games organizers said event tickets for Saturday's eventwill remain valid for the rescheduled event. Olympic Bus Networktickets for Saturday's event will also remain valid, but organizersadvised spectators to find further details on the Games website. 4 L' ^6 [& D# S4 gtvb now,tvbnow,bttvbTheweather's suitability for a Winter Olympics has been questioned sincethe Games were awarded to Vancouver and Whistler in 2003. . a) I& }7 f$ h+ T" _2 P) Swww3.tvboxnow.comAccordingto an Associated Press report, for three consecutive years in themid-1990s, the World Cup ski circuit came to the Canadian resort andfailed to get a single race off. It wasn't just a case of calling off aparticular downhill or super-G; entire weekends had to be scrapped.Eventually, Whistler was removed from the World Cup circuit. tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb# g5 q! `! e% j8 \- s
Onlyone of six training runs for men and women has been completed asplanned to this point. The opening men's downhill training session onWednesday was abandoned after thick fog prevented half the field fromstarting their runs. Then a shortened men's session was completedThursday and Friday's session called off. 公仔箱論壇: f! V j$ w9 y. _: S3 j
Only two skiers - one ofwhom crashed - started the opening women's training on Thursday beforeit too was abandoned. Rules require that at least one complete trainingsession be held before any downhill or super combined race. * p7 V9 Y# i" e& B3 w8 tAtthe 2006 Turin Games, the women's combined was split over two days andthe women's' super-G was postponed by 24 hours. The men's super-G inSestriere was delayed for hours due to heavy snowfall.
