Heavy snowfall prompts cancellation of Thursday's Olympic women's downhill training

Ongoing snowfall forced Milan-Cortina Olympic organizers to cancel the opening women's downhill training session scheduled for Thursday.

Some 20 centimetres have fallen on the Olympia delle Tofane course this week and the white stuff was still coming down Wednesday evening in Cortina.

It was forecast to continue snowing overnight.

"You ⁠have seen the ​heavy snowfall is ongoing and the weather forecast does not allow us to reasonably plan the training for tomorrow," Peter Gerdol, ⁠chief race director at FIS, said at the team captains' meeting.

"We will definitely concentrate all our ‍efforts tomorrow and then we will be staying in the plan as well. We will concentrate all our efforts to be ⁠ready for Friday's morning training, which is the main ​goal now."

Thursday was slated to be the first of three training sessions. Two more were scheduled for Friday and Saturday before Sunday's downhill race. At least one training session needs to be held before the race can start, according to the rules.

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