International Ski Federation defend decision to go ahead with women's snowboard slopestyle final at Winter Olympics

Sport360 staff 08:58 13/02/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Britain's Aimee Fuller.

    The International Ski Federation has defended its decision to go ahead with the women’s snowboard slopestyle final on Monday despite gusting winds at the Phoenix Snow Park.

    Qualification was cancelled on Sunday due to the windy conditions and in the final many riders crashed on at least one of their two runs.

    Britain’s Aimee Fuller, who crashed on her second run after being caught by a gust of wind, said she felt “lucky to be in one piece” afterwards.

    FIS head of communications Jenny Wiedeke was asked if the event should have gone ahead in the conditions at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics daily briefing on Tuesday.

    She said: “We know there were adverse weather conditions but FIS officials monitored training extremely carefully.

    “In the final itself the officials watched the wind conditions very carefully throughout. No athlete is forced to go down and compete.”

    Wiedeke, asked about athletes making advsere comments about the conditions after competing, said: “The bulk of the reaction was in the mixed zone rather than directed towards FIS officials.

    “I spoke to my race director. He said only one team came to him to say something (about the conditions). It wasn’t a protest that was registered. They just went to the race director and voiced their concern about the wind conditions.”

    Wiedeke was not willing to say which team had registered its concern.

    Alpine skiing events have been postponed and rescheduled due to the high winds and Wiedeke was asked why the same decision had not been made for the slopestyle final.

    “We are talking about two venues that are separated by 50kms,” she said.

    “I was at the alpine venue yesterday. It is at 1,500 metres on exposed mountainside. The Phoenix Snow Park is at 700 metres. The winds at the alpine venue were pretty much so strong that you couldn’t stand up straight. So it was a very clear decision (to postpone).

    “We were also able to hold ski jumping (on Monday) which is extremely wind sensitive. Weather conditions are very localised.

    “Ski jumping has very precise thresholds (for wind strength). They have wind measuring equipment. For our other disciplines it is up to our sport and technical experts to assess the conditions. We have a very experienced group of technical officials that make these decisions.”

    Recommended