Winter Olympics 2022 - Downhill postponed due to high winds, rearranged for Monday
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ByEurosport
Updated 06/02/2022 at 08:20 GMT
The men's downhill at the Winter Olympics has been postponed due to high winds. The event was due to start at 03:00 GMT on Sunday but gusts of 40 mph has seen the event postponed. The decision comes a day after the third round of training was cancelled. Watch every moment of Beijing 2022 live and on demand on discovery+.
Watch Mayer's run as wind wreaks havoc and causes training to be cancelled in Beijing
The men's downhill at the Winter Olympics has been postponed due to high winds and will now take place on Monday February 7.
"Due to the present weather situation with the wind gust and the updated forecast - the jury together with the organiser have decided in the best interest of safety and fairness for the racers to delay today's men’s Olympic downhill to another day," read a statement from organisers.
The event was due to start at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre at 03:00 GMT. It was first delayed and then postponed. The event was the first of the Alpine skiing schedule and it has now been slotted it in between the first and second runs of the women's giant slalom on Monday, where Mikaela Shiffrin is set to defend her crown.
The USA’s Bryce Bennett will be first out of the gate when the event does go ahead with Mattias Mayer, Beat Feuz, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Dominik Paris and Marco Odermatt also in action.
The decision comes a day after the third round of training was controversially cancelled. Matthias Mayer, Christof Innerhofer and gold medal favourite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde all completed their final training run before Markus Waldner called proceedings to a halt.
It was a decision that led to criticism from Kjetil Jansrud who hit out at a lack of communication, who said he felt like he had been "robbed".
"It's not okay in any way to do it the way they did it," Jansrud said on discovery+.
"There is complete chaos with the flow of information. You get the impression that Markus ran a little dictator line without information, so it is very difficult to be an athlete at the top and have no idea if it will be on or not.
"At the same time, you notice in the whole field, myself included, that there is a big difference between those who have had a third trip down and those who have not. I think as a collective you feel as if you were robbed from the opportunity to get some practice today, so it is the way it was handled that is a bit problematic.
"I thought it was time to speak out in a proper way. It has something to do with the flow of communication as well. We are a marginal sport where wind and training rounds can affect the result, and at least the psyche of many at the start. Then there must be a form of communication and process on such decisions.
"Today I think it was a bit of a collective feeling that this came out of the blue a bit. It may well turn out to have been the right decision, but today there are a few extra emotions."
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