Heavy snow forces postponements in Olympic schedule

Melissa Woods |

Heavy snow has delayed the women’s snowboarding slopestyle finals at the Winter Olympics.
Heavy snow has delayed the women’s snowboarding slopestyle finals at the Winter Olympics.

Heavy snow is playing havoc with the Milan-Cortina Olympics schedule with Australia’s aerial skiers having to jump for the medals in a condensed day of competition after qualifying was cancelled.

With 20cm of fresh snow falling in Livigno in the Italian alps in the last 24 hours, there were concerns about athlete safety, with fog and blocked roads preventing medical access which forced the postponement of both the women’s and men’s qualifying rounds on Tuesday.

“It’s a little disappointing we couldn’t jump today, but our athletes’ safety is our number one priority, so if that’s at risk, then it’s absolutely the right decision,” said Australian aerials coach Renee McElduff.

Snow at Livigno
It was a wintry scene at the Livigno aerials and moguls park in the Italian Alps. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

“As the fog rolled in, we had some trouble with medical having access to the site and if medical can’t be here then it’s a little bit unsafe for us to jump without that helicopter to transfer and the ambulance had trouble on the roads as well.

“One thing we know for sure in winter sports is that it’s uncertain, so our athletes are flexible and we train to be ready for these kind of situations, so we’ll go home this afternoon and the guys will get some recovery in and we’ll regroup and ready for a double qualification and finals day tomorrow.”

While top aerials medal hope Laura Peel was forced out after rupturing her ACL, Australia has four women competing led by four-time Olympian Danielle Scott.

Danielle Scott
Danielle Scott will have to wait another 24 hours before competing in her fourth Olympic Games. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

On Tuesday morning organisers repeatedly delayed the start of qualifying before making the decision to run it, as well as the finals in a single day, on Wednesday.

The men’s program is set to be run the same way on Thursday.

Reilly Flanagan will make his Olympic debut in the event, with the 21-year-old Canberra skier becoming just the third Australian male athlete to compete in the discipline.

The women’s snowboard slopestyle final in Livigno’s Snow Park was also postponed for 24 hours.

Australian teen Ally Hickman was due to compete in the medal round on Tuesday (local time) against New Zealand’s reigning Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who was the top qualifier.

Hickman, 16, qualified for the 12-athlete final in seventh spot and was the only Australian to make the cut, with Beijing bronze medallist Tess Coady missing out. 

AAP