Snow cancels FIS downhill at Alyeska

ALYESKA, AK (March 26) – Heavy snowfall during the last 48 hours has canceled the FIS downhill scheduled for Thursday at Alyeska Resort. The race was to be a precursor to a second downhill set for Friday to open the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.

A second training run was scheduled to take place late in the afternoon Thursday, but the snow proved to be too much forcing organizers to turn their efforts towards hosting a second training run on Friday morning prior to the championship race.

The opening training run went ahead as planned on Tuesday, before the snow moved in to scrap the second session set for Wednesday. Most athletes where able to participate in the first training run and therefore are eligible to start Friday’s U.S. champs race regardless of if a second run is able to be held.

However, flight delays due to the recent Mt. Redoubt eruption made it impossible for a few U.S. Ski Team athletes, including World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) and World Championships bronze medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), to participate in the initial training run. All athletes must have at least one downhill training run in order to start the race.

“We have a plan for those racers for sure,” said Tracy. “We’re working on getting the course set for them to train tomorrow morning before the downhill race so they can start.”

A similar situation happened at the recent World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden with the men’s downhill. Weather forced organizers to cancel the training run midway through the field, yet the second group of racers was allowed to train the following morning prior to the final race.

Additionally, Mt. Redoubt, located 110 miles from nearby Anchorage, erupted a second time late Thursday morning, adding to the excitement in Alyeska. The volcano does not pose a threat to the event. A full schedule will be set for Friday following the Team Captains meeting slated for 5 p.m. local time on Thursday.

Live timing from the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships is available at www.live-timing.com and news updates are available on www.twitter.com/usskiteam.