Weather forces cancellation of World Cup alpine skiing races Saturday, next weekend

Rain and snowfall wiped out the first women's race of alpine skiing's World Cup season Saturday in Sölden, Austria, and made the men's event for the next day doubtful.

Wet snow on the Austrian glacier affected the visibility on the softened course and made a safe race impossible.

Organizers initially delayed the planned start time of 10 a.m. local time by one hour but decided to call off the race soon after as conditions didn't improve.

"This was the worst-case scenario — but this happened exactly," FIS women's race director Peter Gerdol said. "We had a couple of hours of rain tonight and then this wet snow around five or six o'clock this morning, so the surface was actually too soft to guarantee a safe race."

The giant slalom will likely be rescheduled at another venue, to be confirmed "in a few days," according to Gerdol.

"There is a possibility of a change in weather," FIS secretary general Michel Vion said in a statement. "We are therefore giving the organizers until Tuesday to make a final decision about the women's races."

The four-kilometre Gran Becca course starts in Zermatt at an altitude of 3,700 metres and finishes in Laghi Cime Bianche above Cervinia at 2,835 metres.

While parts of the course are covered by over a meter of snow, mild temperatures in recent weeks hindered snowmaking for the lower section.

FIS usually carries out its snow control two weeks before a World Cup event but last week postponed its decision on the races to give organizers more time.

Weather conditions were expected to improve in the afternoon, allowing organizers to start preparing the course for the men's race on Sunday.

'Major effort' to get course race-ready

Chief of race Rainer Gstrein said they might need to use water and salt to make the weakened course suitable again for a World Cup race.

"It's going to be a major effort," Gstrein told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

It is the first time since 2006 that the women's race of the traditional season-opening weekend in Austria was cancelled. The men's race was most recently called off in 2017 and 2018.

"Well, we're trying. We're all ready to go, everything's been packed up," Mikaela Shiffrin said in a video posted on her Twitter account.

"But the race has been cancelled because, unfortunately, it's really, really, really wet outside. But air smells fresh and that's nice but we won't be racing today."

Next weekend races scrapped

Two men's World Cup downhill races next weekend that start in Switzerland and finish in Italy were called off Saturday due to a lack of snow on the final 300 metres of the course following an unseasonably warm fall.

Added to the calendar this season, the Zermatt-Cervinia downhill against the spectacular backdrop of the Matterhorn was set to become the first cross-border event in alpine skiing's World Cup history.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said the Oct. 29-30 races had to be cancelled "due to the lack of snow and the safety situation on last section of the race track" and will not be replaced.

A decision on two women's races scheduled on the same course for Nov. 5-6 was expected Tuesday.

FIS Secretary General Michel Vion said in a statement on the federation's website that the cross-border downhill was "a new and unique project that we continue to believe in."