At 11:30 a.m. Saturday (March 14), the stands at the Whistler Creekside venue for the 2010 Paralympic alpine races were full of flag-waving, banner-toting fans ready to scream for their favourite skiers in the scheduled downhill event. Everyone was amped up and ready to roll.
But Whistler's ever-fickle weather gods had other plans. After a nice enough morning, in which organizers finally managed to squeeze in a downhill training run for the men's standing racers, fog began to creep down the mountain.
Though the view from the stands to the finish line was clear at the 11:30 a.m. scheduled start time, a bank of fog could be seen stealing down the slopes, obscuring higher parts of the course. After the introductory video got spirits soaring, a 15-minute delay was announced that soon turned into an hour, and more.
As spectators milled around and kids sampled the demonstration sports on site, testing out sit-skis for alpine and cross-country and wheeled sledge hockey gear, the clouds enveloped the finish area and snow kept coming down. Around 2:15 p.m., organizers called it quits for the day.
The weather in Whistler has cramped the style of the opening days of Paralympic alpine action, also forcing the cancellation of downhill training runs on Thursday and Friday (March 11 and 12) and keeping the men's standing skiers from taking a training run on Wednesday (March 10), though the racers in the five other categories made it through one run that day.
Officials have overhauled the Paralympic alpine race schedule in the face of the weather challenges and forecasts. Sunday (March 14) is now set to feature the slalom races for the visually impaired and sitting athletes, beginning at 10 a.m., followed by the standing athletes racing their slalom events on Monday (March 15) starting at 10 a.m.
Tuesday (March 16) is set to feature the giant slalom races for the visually impaired and sitting athletes, while the standing skiers will race giant slalom on Wednesday (March 17).
The downhill events have been moved to Thursday (March 18), followed by the super G races next Friday (March 19) for the visually impaired and sitting athletes and next Saturday (March 20) for the standing racers.
The super combined events are currently scheduled for next Sunday (March 21), the final day of Paralympic competition. Check vancouver2010.com for full details and times.
According to a statement released Saturday night by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, spectator tickets will remain valid for the dates purchased, even though the events on each date have changed.
"Each alpine competition discipline has its own distinct technical and weather requirements, so race directors have adjusted the race schedule to best align with the forecasted weather for the coming week," the statement said.
"Technical events such as slalom and GS can tolerate the lower visibility weather conditions currently forecast for the early part of this week, whereas the speed events such as downhill and super G require colder, clearer weather forecast for later in the week."
Spectators will be able to switch event tickets to see their specific competitions on the rescheduled dates, subject to availability, but will have to do so "at least one day before the date on the ticket," the statement said.
Tickets bought through Vancouver 2010 for Saturday's postponed downhill races will be refunded, the statement added, with account holders receiving refunds after the Games are over. This refund affects about 3,000 spectators, the statement said.
"While the competition taking place on each respective day differs from the original competition schedule, spectators will still experience world-class athletes competing in a spectacular alpine competition venue and inspirational performances are guaranteed," Tim Gayda, vice-president of sport, said in the statement.
"Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding of the challenges of winter weather and outdoor sport."
Tickets for all events, including the giant slalom races on March 17 which previously had no events scheduled are still on sale through ticket box offices or 1-800-TICKETS.
Canada's Para-alpine racers took the postponement of the downhill races in stride on Saturday. Though they were itching to break the ice on their 2010 Games races, they said such changes simply are part of ski racing and life.
Standing skier Matt Hallat said the waiting is just "part of the sport." The Whistler-trained racer and current Squamish resident is also intimately familiar with the vagaries of the local weather.
"It was going to happen, right?" he said. "We knew eventually throughout the 10 days it would happen at least once."
After squeezing in a "not bad" training run Saturday morning, Hallat spent the intervening hours waiting in the athlete lounge on the hill, watching some of the first Paralympic sledge hockey action. He said he thinks the team has done a good job of staying loose so far, though they are ready to roll.
Visually impaired racer Viviane Debou of Edmonton was set to start fifth with her guide Lindsay Debou of Whistler, and the athletes kept up their spirits and those of everyone around them with singing, dancing and course visualizations through their three-hour wait at the top of the course.
"We woke up and we had a very good feeling we were totally ready to do the downhill today, but that's life. It's part of ski racing, and we totally stayed positive, both of us," Forest said.
The dynamic duo stayed loose by singing songs from the Black Eyed Peas, Miley Cyrus and Reel 2 Real that catchy "I Like to Move It" track and going through their regular routine of visualizing their run through the course ahead, which always ends with victorious fists punching in the air.
Forest and Debou have had a successful partnership so far, scooping up many medals on the IPC World Cup circuit. The Whistler native Debou communicates with Forest, a two-time summer Paralympic gold medallist, throughout runs to help her speed through the gates, and they're comfortable on the Whistler course, where they won four medals in last year's World Cup races.
"I think we feel mostly confident because if it's foggy, me being from Whistler, I know the track so well, I'm not intimidated by the fog, because it's always foggy in Whistler. We keep telling ourselves that they're probably more scared. They're used to icy and hard conditions in Europe; we're more prepared for this," Debou said.
"We just keep getting more pumped up every single day. If it holds, fine; if we ski tomorrow, fine. When the course is ready, we're ready."
Forest and Debou led their category in Wednesday's training run, as did Whistler sit-skier Sam Danniels. He said training runs don't mean much in the long run, but "it's nice to know that I made it down in one piece."
"The course is fantastic; the conditions are some of the most challenging that I've ever raced in," Danniels said.
He was philosophical about Whistler's changeable weather, joking, "It's a skier's paradise, just not a ski racer's paradise"
Susan Danniels, Sam's mother, stood in the finish area on Saturday with a group of some 50 family members and Sam supporters, many of them sporting eye-catching "Team Sam" T-shirts with a photo of Danniels in full race mode. They arrived around 10 a.m. to cheer on his Paralympic debut in the downhill, Susan Danniels said, but she too took the delay in stride.
"When I stand here and I think, 'Oh, I'm tired of standing up, I've been standing for hours now,' I think, 'Sam's been in his sit-ski since about 6 a.m. this morning probably. So no, I don't even go there and think about that. I think about those guys up there, they're tolerating this, and trying to stay focused and trying to stay on top of everything, to be ready to race a downhill at 120 or so kilometres an hour, I think I can probably stand here and wait," Danniels said.
