Because of the weather conditions forecast for this weekend for the Critérium de la Première Neige in Val d’Isère, the organizers have taken the decision to run the women’s Super G instead of the downhill this Saturday. If the downhill training session can be held on Friday, December 15, the speed event will be held on Sunday, December 17. If this is not possible, two Super Gs will be run over the weekend - a first for the Women’s World Cup. The top women skiers would compete twice at the same discipline on both Saturday and Sunday on the same course.
When it was inspected this morning, a large amount of snow was found to have accumulated along the length of the OK run. With wind gusting of up to 120kph (62 mph), the scheduled training run had to be cancelled.
The race management announced yesterday that the start of the downhill was being lowered anyway to the Super G starting point. The preparation of the piste has been complicated by having a window of barely 48 hours of fine weather between two storm fronts.