© KEYSTONE/AP/Robert F. Bukaty
The Beijing Olympics Team Event should finally start on Sunday at 2 a.m. Swiss time.
The organizers were forced to postpone the last alpine skiing event scheduled in these games due to the stormy winds that raged on Saturday in Yanqing.
A cancellation of this parallel by mixed teams remains however on the agenda. The weather forecasts are therefore hardly optimistic for this last day, with even stronger gusts of wind expected. Furthermore, no competition can take place following the closing ceremony has started.
Organizing this event as part of the World Cup finals in mid-March in Courchevel is also not on the agenda. “The IOC is responsible for the races here, so hosting during the World Cup is not an option,” FIS women’s racing director Peter Gerdol told SRF.
Logistic problems
The IOC wishes to organize this event at all costs – brought forward to 3 a.m. (Swiss time) on Saturday before being postponed twice by one hour – in order to be able to award all the titles. The FIS for its part would have pressed to cancel this Team Event, of which Switzerland is the title holder.
This postponement of one day does create some logistical problems. Many skiers had indeed booked their return flight for Sunday long ago, as had the members of the timing team. But the IOC finally prevailed.
Only one precedent
The pure and simple cancellation of an event in the Winter Games has only been decided once in history. In 1928 in St-Moritz, the 10,000 m men’s speed skating had to be interrupted definitively because of an ice made too fragile by the heat due to the foehn.