ALPINE:

Mother Nature forces waiting game on World Cup women

Jan. 31, 2011 — Alpine Canada  

SESTRIERE, Italy — It was a long weekend for the women's Canadian Alpine Ski Team in Sestriere, Italy, home of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games alpine events. The women were set to race a downhill and a super-combined event on Saturday and Sunday, but Mother Nature decided otherwise.

A thick fog bank set over Sestriere on Wednesday and did not leave before the weekend. The women were able to race their downhill training run on Thursday, but all the other weekend events were canceled.

Saturday's downhill was delayed for four hours before the race organizing committee put an official end to the event. It was a long day of waiting for the athletes and coaches, who kept hoping for the best.

"You can control a lot of things in ski racing. You can control your tactic, you can control your line, you can control your mental and physical strength, but you can't control the weather. So you need to make sure that you don't panic and you stay loose and focused," said speed head coach Frank Keble.

"The girls need to keep themselves busy and distracted from all the delays, that is the most important thing during days like this. We race speed events, these situations are bound to happen and everyone needs to be OK and aware of it, it's a part of ski racing," added Keble.

During those four hours, the athletes were treated to unlimited expresso shots and decent Italian food. The Austrian racers kept themselves entertained with a game of cards while other athletes played games on their phones.

"You can't stay focused on your race during those four hours. You can't keep thinking of what you are going to do or visualizing what will happen during those two minutes or so, for four hours. You just can't! You need to think about anything else and make sure that you have some other distractions," said Georgia Simmerling. "It's when they say it's a go again that you start concentrating and visualizing. Then you have about 30 minutes to get back into the game and get pumped for your race. The girls slowly start to go down and you hear the encouragements and the screams, that's when the excitement starts again."

The World Cup tour athlete kept busy by watching the men's downhill race in Chamonix as the ROC was kind enough to showcase the race on the big screen in the tent.

North Vancouver, B.C.'s Manuel Osborne-Paradis's crash, which resulted in a broken fibula and torn ACL, put a cloud on many faces in the tent, but a wave of applause broke out when Didier Cuche, winner of the race, went down the track in an almost perfect run.  S-Magazine