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 cancelled training sessions for the men and the women on Friday. Then they cancelled Saturday’s women’s training run to focus all their efforts on preparing the course for the scheduled men’s downhill. That means Sunday’s women’s super-combined cannot be run as scheduled, because the women have not completed a training run yet.
“I think I’m lucking out pretty heavily because of all the cancellations,” Vonn said. “Normally I would be disappointed, but for my shin I think this is the best possible scenario. This gives me quite a bit more time to rest up and heal.”
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 cancelled midway through, a second was completed, and the third was cancelled. The women started one training run, which was cancelled Thursday after two racers.
