BLOUIN AND THE WIND
Wild weather turns slopestyle final into survival test with Canadian taking silver days after training spill
Why did they let them go? The wind was wicked at the Phoenix Snow Park, and everyone could feel it. Sunday it had affected the men’s slopestyle final, and then cancelled the qualification for the women’s race. In the morning German snowboarder Silvia Mittermüller was apparently sick, and wrote on Twitter, “All delayed because of strong wind. Kinda glad. Really not feeling right.” accompanied by a video of the wind whipping the course.
And then they ran the race anyway, and it was a massacre. The Associated Press estimated nine of the 50 runs could be considered clean: no falls, no crashes. Total runs per rider were reduced from three to two, and no single rider had two clean runs. The day before, the men were shoved just enough while in the air, forward or back, but they could land what they considered safe jumps. In this race so many riders were in trouble from the moment they rose into the air: arms akimbo, twisting to stay level, their boards like leaves in a strong wind.
It was a disaster. Dutch rider Cheryl Maas called it “a sh--show.” Canadian Brooke Voigt fell on both her runs and said, “It’s terrifying,” and fellow Canuck Spencer O’Brien said, “They postponed this yesterday, and the weather was worse today.” Austrian Anna Gasser told The Associated Press, “They kind of told us if we don’t go today there was no other day so every girl felt the pressure to go . . . No disrespect, it’s a little funny that they can move the downhill five days and they pressure us into riding in these conditions.”
The International Ski Federation (FIS) claimed no riders complained, but they also didn’t ask. On Sunday, the men’s slopestyle final was affected by wind, though to a lesser degree:
“Every girl felt the pressure to go . . . they can move the downhill five days and they pressure us into riding in these conditions.” SNOWBOARDER ANNA GASSER
Canada’s Max Parrot, who won silver, said it varied blowing competitors forward or back, and you couldn’t tell which.
The riders in the final weren’t hurt on the day, which was lucky. Canadian silver medallist Laurie Blouin had a black eye from a training fall, and said she had to look away from the runs before hers. Australian women’s snowboarder Tess Coady wrote on Instagram that she was injured in training because she “got picked up in the wind on the bottom jump in practice and my (anterior cruciate ligament) was not a big fan!”
And four hours after her first tweet Mittermüller wrote, “They sent us with delay. Last practice run I got a wind gust, came short and hurt my knee. I tried with all my heart, despite the bad situation of being sick and having wind. Was it the right choice? I don’t know.”
“So many people got hurt because of the wind already,” said Gasser. “Even yesterday the practice we did in the morning was dangerous.” FIS released a statement that read, “The FIS Jury monitored the weather conditions closely throughout the day, including consulting with the coaches, and considered it was within the boundaries to stage the competition safely . . . After staging the 45-minute training session without problems and monitoring the weather forecast for the following hours, the Jury determined that the weather was stable enough to proceed with the competition.”
“FIS always aims for the athletes to be able to stage their best performances, which some athletes have expressed was not the case today, but the nature of outdoor sports also requires adapting to the elements.”
Why didn’t they ask the riders? The men’s downhill and the women’s giant slalom had already been postponed earlier in the week due to high winds at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre. In Sochi, the jumps were too big for many female snowboarders; here the course was fine, until the weather turned it into something else.
It was winter, mishandled. The previous two Games were practically tropical: Vancouver 2010 had to import snow to Cypress Mountain by truck and helicopter and spread artificial snow on hay bales, but it wasn’t dangerous. In Sochi, skiers splashed through the snow and the halfpipe was rendered soft and bumpy by warm weather, reducing rider speed. While several fell, nobody was seriously hurt. Beijing, for its part, will rely on almost entirely artificial snow in 2022.
Like the name for planets we consider habitable, winter sports is a Goldilocks thing. It’s cold enough here that at least one Canadian photographer got frostbite on his forehead, where the metal rim of the viewfinder rested above his eye, after shooting in the mountains. The wind was wicked. As the planet warms, people have already speculated the stock of suitably cold cities for future Winter Olympics could significantly dwindle. Too warm can be difficult. Too wintry can be a challenge.
But it was manageable here until organizers decided the world’s best female snowboarders could handle the wind, probably. The schedule is packed at the Phoenix park: There are judges who are dedicated to other events as the Games go on; there are TV windows to be filled. It was day three of these Olympics, and you have to think a solution could have been found that didn’t involve endangering athletes. But they let them go. The show must go on.
It shouldn’t have. Asked her best moment of the day, Finland’s Enni Rukajärvi said, “After the last run when it was over. It was really scary with the wind. I had a really bad fall on my first run, so I was pretty scared to ride, so I was happy I was in one piece after.” And she won bronze.