Heavy snowfall disrupts Olympic training and events in Livigno
The women’s qualifying and final will be held on Wednesday, February 18, while the men’s will be postponed to Thursday, February 19.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) also decided to completely postpone the women’s ski style final on Tuesday, as incessant snowfall made it impossible to maintain the course. Sixteen-year-old Ally Hickman is the only Australian at the event, which is expected to be postponed until Wednesday.
The disruption to Tuesday’s events comes a day after the women’s freeskiing big air final was postponed as blizzard-like conditions ravaged the town before maintenance workers worked tirelessly to clear the slope and get the final support operational once conditions eased.
Aerial practices also had to be canceled on Monday after heavy snowfall made jumping impossible.
For Flanagan, who was making her Olympic debut, the weather was uncomfortable but inevitable.
“We spent two days on the site, testing the site and seeing what the site was like,” Flanagan said.
“It would be ideal to jump today, but everyone is in the same boat and we need to adapt, do what we can, do some visualization and go from there.”
Reilly Flanagan at aerial practice on February 14. Credit: Getty Images
The 21-year-old from Noosaville has only been competing in aerial sports for five years and has been on the World Cup circuit for the last two but said Monday’s conditions were up there with the worst he has ever seen.
“These are probably some of the worst conditions we’ve ever tried to jump in. The conditions aren’t great since we haven’t jumped, but it’s definitely not ideal in the snow.”
Olympic organizers have avoided some of the chaos and confusion by moving the men’s and women’s snowboard ski style qualifying event forward one day to Sunday, with the slopestyle event most affected by the conditions.
“Of all the Park & Pipe competitions, slopestyle is the most susceptible to speed issues due to the length and width of the course and the number of features on the course in question,” a spokesperson for the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said.
“With the amount of snow we saw today, it would be nearly impossible to keep the course clear of fresh snow to provide athletes with safe and fair competition.”
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