Simon Evans

YANQING. China (Reuters). The men’s Alpine Olympic Programme at Beijing Winter Games has been postponed until Monday noon (0400 GMT) due to strong winds that blew on Sunday. Organisers were forced to delay for two hours before giving up and throwing in the towel.

“Due to the present weather situation with the wind gust and the updated forecast – the jury together with the organiser have decided in the best interest of safety and fairness for the racers to delay today’s men’s Olympic downhill to another day,” organisers said in a statement.

The men’s race will occur between the Monday women’s giantslalom.

After just three skiers completed their runs, similar winds in the middle and upper areas caused Saturday’s third session to be cancelled.

Fans aren’t allowed to go to the race because of COVID-19 restrictions. However, Thomas Bach, President International Olympic Committee (IOC), arrived to the course made up from artificial snow to observe the action.

Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is the favorite, but he said that skiers will have to be able to handle some wind.

The World Cup leader in downhill said, “We’ll see. We just need to be patient and ensure that we take the correct decisions.”

We can’t talk about safety if we don’t care about it. If it’s only a small amount, it makes it safe to ski. In that case, we may just need to go with the flow and see what happens.

Kilde stated, “It is an outdoor sport and we are familiar with the winds and the possible outcomes.” He hopes to see less waiting in the event of a similar scenario.

They are just tired and drained from trying to get through a long, hard day. Then suddenly, at two o’clock in the afternoon they must make a decision. Let us see if the children can take a better decision and move on to the next stage.

Johan Clarey, an ex-French veteran, was supportive of the decision.

According to the 41-yearold, security should be the first priority.