America’s Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait until Thursday to kick off her bid for multiple Olympic medals after the opening women’s giant slalom was postponed Monday because of strong winds.
“Due to strong winds and the weather forecast, today’s giant slalom is postponed,” FIS announced.
It was rescheduled for Thursday, with the two legs to be raced either side of the men’s downhill, FIS confirmed.
The blue riband downhill was also postponed Sunday because of high winds and an unfavourable weather forecast which saw the cancellation of Monday’s downhill training for the men’s combined event.
The forecast for the Yongpyong course, where the women’s giant slalom would have been held, was for another bitterly cold day on Monday, with temperatures of -16 degrees Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit).
That will be accompanied by winds gusting at up to 18m peer second, lending a truly glacial chill.
“The weather forecast is not great in terms of wind,” Atle Skaardal, chief race director for women’s FIS races, admitted Sunday as he ran through initial planning for the giant slalom.
At the Jeongseon course used for speed events, the winds were so strong that the gondola used to take racers and officials up the mountain could not run for safety reasons.
The women are also reliant on a gondola, the 3.7km-long Rainbow lift.
Shiffrin’s quest
The opening giant slalom was to be followed by Shiffrin’s slalom title defence on Wednesday and the super-G on Saturday, with the downhill, combined and team events to come in the second week of competition.
The 22-year-old Shiffrin could realistically target four of five medals at the Games, but will face stiff opposition from the likes of France’s Tessa Worley, the reigning world giant slalom champion.
“I’m a little surprised,” Worley said of the postponement.
“They told us that the Olympic giant slalom was going to be held. I was really stoked for it.
“No matter how windy it was outside, I was ready.”
Worley, who was also crowned world GS champion in 2013, added: “The decision has been quickly taken. We’ll just get back to the Olympic village as quickly as possible.”
Romain Velez, head coach of the French women’s team, said snow conditions were “very good”.
“But there’s an enormous amount of wind. It was dangerous because it was moving the gates around.
“It was a wise decision,” Velez said.
“We were expecting to experience a tough day. Finally they decided quite early on to postpone it.
“We’ll take our foot off the pedal and head off straight away to prepare to come back when the race is rescheduled.”
