Heavy snow has forced the postponement of the men's Olympic Downhill. Officials in Nagano have put the race back until Wednesday.

It was the third time in the last five Olympics that the men's Alpine glamour race had not been able to start as scheduled.

A race official calls off the event

The decision to reschedule the event depended on the weather. Up to 40 cm of snow is expected on Mount Karamatsu in the next two days.

"It was impossible to ski today," said U.S. 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."

Rescheduling plans

Organisers drew up 40 alternative plans before opting for 11 Februrary as the best date. Organisers said it was better to postpone the event than to run a dangerous race in poor conditions.

"There is no problem postponing the race becuse we still have 16 days. There is no reason to have an unfair race for our competitors. We're at the Olympics, which is the most important race," said Gianfranco Kasper, secretary general of FIS, the international ski federation.

Weather plagued the Alpine world championships that were held in Morioka, Japan, in 1993, forcing days of delays and postponements.

"It's unfortunate, but it's one of the things we sort of expected here in Japan," said Canada's Ed Podivinsky, a bronze medallist in the 1994 downhill at Lillehammer who also will be racing in these Olympics.

"They're going to go every day from now on until it gets done. The way they scheduled the races, they can push everything back. We're just sort of at the mercy of the weather right now."

Ominous forecast

Weather forecasters predicted steady snow, with heavy accumulations, and gusty winds through Monday night.

"It doesn't look very promising," US Ski team spokesman Tom Kelly said. "That's one of the reasons they put this event at the front of the schedule, because it's the event that's most susceptible to the weather."

Delays in the men's downhill, the first Alpine skiing event of the games, are not unusual. The event was delayed for a day by high winds at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and was delayed three times by heavy snow and powerful winds at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©