Alpine & freestyle skiing disrupted due to heavy downfall of snow in Beijing Winter Olympics
Oviri Kelvin
The Winter Olympic schedule in Beijing, China has been disrupted with the heavy fall of snow which predictably the temperature is set to diminish further below -22°C.
As a result of this at the Genting Snow Park, several Olympic events such as the ski slopestyle have been postponed by a day. Also postponed on Sunday was the women’s Freeski qualification due to poor visibility caused by the heavy snow.
The heavy snow prevented 33 of 87 athletes from completing the contest for the men’s giant slalom starter at alpine skiing.
Henrik Kristoffersen, a Norwegian, who in the opening run finished 4th at the National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing, with a stopgap, described how he managed to see in the gusty snow.
According to Sky Sports, the difficulty caused by the fresh snow that came after the Games had been criticised for being the first Winter Olympics to rely almost 100% on artificial snow.
They noted that the artificial snow used at Beijing 2022 “poses tough environmental questions” with more than 222 million litres of water needed to create snow conditions, ecological experts said last month.
Sky Sports said the women’s Freeski slopestyle runs – featuring GB’s Kirsty Muir and Katie Summerhayes in pushed back to Monday.
The report said the men’s qualification, with James Woods going for GB, is now scheduled for Tuesday, with the finals on Wednesday.
Furthermore, in alpine skiing, the second run of the men’s giant slalom was delayed by the snowfall and needed hours of maintenance on the track for the event to restart at 07:00 GMT.
A training run for the women’s downhill was also cancelled.
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Kristoffersen said, “snow is a little uneven, so it’s quite aggressive in sports, a little slick.
“I think it was difficult for everyone,” he added.
On whether it was safe to race, he added: “Definitely. The light is more than skiable, that’s for sure, it just makes it difficult.”
Away from the mountains, there was heavy snow in central Beijing – which is unusual for the Chinese capital in February.
The city averages less than half an inch of snow in the month but was covered by a thick blanket on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the downfall did not have an impact on the Games schedule in the city. Events including curling, ice hockey, and speed skating took place in indoor arenas in the Beijing zone.
