WHISTLER, British Columbia — Olympic organizers are having bad luck with the weather, which is good luck for injured Lindsey Vonn.
It rained on the downhill courses Thursday night, softening them to the point where officials canceled training sessions for the men and the women Friday. Then they canceled today’s women’s training run to focus all their efforts on preparing the course for the scheduled men’s downhill, which is at high risk of being postponed as well. That means Sunday’s women’s super-combined cannot be run as scheduled, because the women have not completed a training run.
That gives Vonn yet another day for her injured shin to heal.
“Another lucky day,” Vonn said on her Twitter page Friday.
Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety tweeted on the subject as well.
“Attempted to train slalom today,” Ligety wrote. “I think Mount Hood (in Oregon) in August would have been better. Bottomless slush.”
Because of its high speeds and potential danger, a downhill race cannot be run without at least one official training session. Ditto for super-combined, because it’s a two-run race of downhill and slalom. There is no official training for super- combined, giant slalom and slalom.
The men have had three downhill training sessions scheduled. One was canceled midway through, a second was completed, and the third was canceled. The women started one training run, which was canceled Thursday after two racers.
John Meyer
“Glint of hope” for Rahlves.
In 2002, after dislocating his right hip for the third time in his career, U.S. Olympic skier Daron Rahlves spent two months recovering.
This time, he is measuring his recovery in weeks.
Rahlves, 36, was injured in a crash during his opening skicross race at the Winter X Games on Jan. 31 in Aspen, just days after he was selected to represent the United States in the Olympic debut of skicross.
Competition begins Feb. 21 at Cypress Mountain. But Rahlves remains at home in Truckee, Calif., going through hours of therapy each day, hoping he can strengthen his hip enough to compete in his fourth Games.
“There is a glint of hope and a chance I could pull it off,” Rahlves said. “It’s pretty much going to come down to the day before.”
Uhrmann leads qualifiers.
Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria had the longest jump in qualifying for the normal hill event, and Michael Uhrmann of Germany led a group of 51 ski jumpers who secured a spot in the first medal event of the Olympics.
Schlierenzauer, who was among 10 jumpers who already had qualified for today’s competition based on their World Cup standings, soared 107 meters for his best jump of the week.
In the first competitive event of the Games, Uhrmann jumped 106 meters for a total score of 138.5 points for the best result among those trying to qualify.
Anders Johnson of the United States squeaked into the competition after equaling Choi Heung-chul of South Korea in the 40th qualifying place, meaning today’s event will feature 51 jumpers instead of the usual 50.
“I think the distance was right on the bubble, but my style was pretty good,” Johnson said. “It was a good landing.”
