Arabella Ng’s Winter Olympic wait continues as high winds delay women’s giant slalom again
Giant slalom event is switched to Thursday as windy conditions play havoc with skiing schedule
The race at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre was later moved to Thursday with an earlier start time to accommodate the men’s downhill at the Jeongseon venue.
The event had been much anticipated as the first in American Mikaela Shiffrin’s bid for multiple gold medals in Pyeongchang.
“It’s a bummer that we’re not able to race today. But with the training block I’ve had, I’m prepared and feeling good,” she said.
“I’ll use this time to continue to train and refocus on Wednesday’s slalom race. We have a great gym and space to eat and take plenty of naps, so I’ll use this time to recharge.”
Women’s chief race director Atle Skaardal had been confident of getting the giant slalom underway despite the challenges given the Yongpyong gondola was less exposed.
Organisers had prepared an alternate start position lower down the mountain, away from the strongest winds at the peak, but their efforts were to no avail.
Disruption to the Alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics is not unusual and it is a rare Games where some re-jigging of the schedule is not necessary.
Running races on separate mountains on the same day is hardly ideal, however, especially when one, the men’s downhill, is the marquee event of alpine skiing at the Games.
The men’s Super G at Jeongseon has already been switched to Friday, previously a rest day, to accommodate the downhill.
The first run of the giant slalom has been moved forward by 45 minutes to 9.30am local time (8.30am HKT) on Thursday with the second run starting at 1.15pm, allowing a window clear for the men’s downhill to take centre stage at 11am.
The 16-year-old Ng will race among 81 competitors over two runs which will decide the winners on an aggregated time.
