After days of heavy snow and mist the weather in Nagano finally looks set to improve.

A host of events have been postponed. Among them, the women's super-G, the men's downhill and combined downhill.

Over 40cm (16in) of snow has fallen in the area in the past two days. But official forecasters say that they are optimistic that weather conditions for the next few days will provide some relief.

The Nagano weather centre's public relations manager, Hiroshi Uchida, said: "On February 11 and 12, the weather should remain fair.

"The evening of February 13 will bring further snowfall, with cold winds from Siberia expected to bring heavy snow on February 15 ... after that, the weather should improve with occasional snowfall only."

Mr Uchida said that the weather is changing in two or three-day cycles and that the low pressure which caused the recent snowfall was created from warm southern winds.

Atrocious conditions

The postponement of the men's downhill, the most "glamorous" of the alpine events, is the third time in the last five Olympics that the race has not been able to start as scheduled.

It was originally timetabled for Sunday, February 8, but the conditions were too dangerous to allow the race to go ahead.

"It was impossible to ski," said the US racer Tommy Moe, whose reign as defending Olympic downhill champion was extended by at least one more day.

"It was snowing unbelievably hard. Fog would come in and go out, then it would be clear for a second. Then it would snow harder."

The men's downhill has since been rescheduled for Thursday.

Conditions for the combined slalom, which took place on Tuesday, were also far from ideal.

Austria's Hermann Maier, who has exploded onto the ski scene this season, was left fuming when he just managed to squeeze into the top ten.

"The course was scandalous. The course setting had too many turns and was too tricky," said the former bricklayer.

Equally unhappy was Norway's second placed Lasse Kjus, who finished a distant second to Reiter but still in contention for the gold in Thursday's combined downhill.

"The course was much too icy. I was really sliding around," the defending Olympic champion said.
 

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