Weather cancellation for women's downhill in Val d'Isere

Weather cancellation for women’s downhill in Val d’Isere{mosimage}Today’s women’s downhill in Val d’Isere, France, was cancelled because of snow and heavy winds. The gusts were so fierce near the top of the Oreiller-Killy course that several race-specific installations were damaged.

A rumor spread around the World Cup circuit that the race would be re-scheduled for early January in Santa Caterina, Italy, where the Italians are hosting Europa Cup speed races.

Kurt Hoch, the race director for the women’s World Cup, shot that rumor down during the team captains’ meeting tonight. “It’s a fantastic course but their cable car is not homologized,” said Hoch. “There is no snow in the second half of the downhill at the moment and their snow cannons are not working. If they can get their cable car homologized, their snow cannons working and be ready 10 days before then we can maybe think about it.”

The women are scheduled to race another downhill in Val d’Isere before moving on to Saint Moritz, Switzerland. But as much as forty centimeters of fresh snow is forecasted to fall on the Val d’Isere race track tonight.

-Erica Bulman contributed to this report