SÖLDEN, Austria — The new
World Cup ski season got off to a false start on Saturday when
organizers canceled the women’s giant slalom in Soelden just hours before it
was due to begin because of bad weather conditions.
اضافة اعلان
Heavy rain fell,
turning into snow, on the Tyrol station 2,500m up on the Rettenbach glacier,
where the race was to take place.
“Due to the current
weather situation and the future weather forecast, today’s Soelden woman’s
giant slalom is canceled,” the organizers tweeted.
Official training
had already been canceled on Friday due to a strong wind which prevented the
ski lifts from operating.
The last
cancellation in Soelden, which has opened the alpine ski season for more than
20 years at the end of October, dates back to 2018 when the men’s race could
not start.
The World Cup is
now set to get underway on Sunday with a men’s giant slalom.
Both men’s
downhill races scheduled for Zermatt/Cervinia next weekend have also been
canceled because of a lack of snow.
The
International Ski Federation (FIS), faced with a total lack of snow at the bottom of the
piste, had pushed back its traditional “snow control” in a bid to allow colder
temperatures to set in to allow the artificial snow created by cannons to
settle.
“Ultimately,
however, we must recognize that nature is always stronger than man,” said Franz
Julen, head of the local organizing committee.
However, officials remain
hopeful of staging two women’s downhills at the cross-border venue straddling
Switzerland and Italy on November 5 and 6.
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