Mother Nature win agains: Women’s SG canceled in Bad Kleinkirchheim

By Published On: January 11th, 2015Comments Off on Mother Nature win agains: Women’s SG canceled in Bad Kleinkirchheim

A day after wind wreaked havoc on the women’s downhill in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, the race organizers pulled out every stop to try to get today’s super G off. But Mother Nature was not to be denied, and after sending 11 racers — all of whom made it to the finish — the jury decided to cancel the second day of racing in a row at the venue.

Overnight temperatures never dropped below freezing. The hill was watered and salted in an attempt to make the surface safe and skiable, but a storm came in midday with strong winds, rain and snow. After a lengthy hold following bib 11, the FIS jury finally decided the conditions were not safe or fair and called the race.

Italian Daniela Merighetti was leading the run ahead of her teammate Nadia Fanchini when officials put a stop to the event. Julia Mancuso was also one of the 11 racers sent down the course before the storm blanketed the hill. She was sitting in fourth position before the cancellation.

“They did a good job preparing with what they had, and I felt like it was in good condition for racing,” Mancuso said. “I trust that the FIS do the best job and the race organizers do the best job to put a race on when they believe it’s safe. It’s an outdoor sport, anything can happen, sometimes you’re on the good side of the luck and sometimes you’re on the bad.”

“We tried everything to secure a race today,” said FIS Chief Race Director Atle Skaardal. “In the morning, it was still warm and the track wasn’t hard enough – reason why we used water and salt. It took a little bit longer as we thought for the snow to get more compact and this explained the delay.”

“Next to the weather we are very small and the strong wind gust didn’t give us the choice. We had to cancel the race. Now we will be looking into good solutions to reschedule the two canceled races in Cortina and St. Moritz.”

Up next for the women is a night slalom in Flachau, Austria, on Tuesday evening.

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About the Author: Jessica Kelley

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team, Kelley collected three NorAm titles, won GS silver at the 2002 World Junior Championships, and was a member of the 2007 World Championships team during her professional career. She resides in Park City, Utah, with her husband, Adam Cole.