Saturday, February 9, 2002

Wind blows Day 1

By ERIC FRANCIS -- Calgary Sun
 SALT LAKE CITY -- A snowstorm that brought windy conditions described as some of the worst ever seen at Utah Olympic Park forced the cancellation of training in several different sports yesterday.

 "Mother Nature didn't co-operate with our hopes here of starting out," said Clinton Hill, venue general manager at the Park, site of ski jumping, luge, bobsled and skeleton.

 More than 1,400 volunteers armed with shovels, rakes and small gas-powered snowblowers worked through the storm to remove fresh snow from the 3,000-metre-long downhill course at Snowbasin, where men's and women's training runs still had to be scrapped.

 Winds gusting at over 80 km/h also contributed to the decision to cancel the men's 90-metre ski jumping qualifying round.

 The qualifying round consisting of 60 jumpers will now be combined with a "trial" jump and held before Sunday's scheduled medal round.

 "In the nine years that I've been involved out here in the park in ski jumping, I've only seen one other day where the winds were this high," said Alan Johnson, ski jumping director for Utah Olympic Park.

 The storm also caused the cancellation of the men's singles luge training and Nordic combined ski jumping training.

 The four Canadian women in Monday's downhill still got a chance to inspect the Snowbasin course.

 Melanie Turgeon, Anne-Marie Lefrancois, Sara-Maude Boucher and Gen Simard will try again tomorrow afternoon for their first of two scheduled training runs.

 The men's speed squad of Edi Podivinsky, Calgary's Darin McBeath and Dave Anderson tested the course Thursday under ideal conditions.

 McBeath finished 38th, Anderson was 40th and Podivinsky did not finish after falling. Jean-Philippe Roy did not start.

 Team officials confirmed Podivinsky, 31, did not feel any ill-effects from his earlier spill and would indeed suit up this morning when clear skies and colder temperatures are expected to greet the men for their final training run.

 A bronze medallist in the '94 Olympics, Podivinsky, 31, insists this will be his last year of competition.

2002 Games News Coverage