Sochi Games: Snowboard cross competition delayed by fog

SOCHI, Russia -- U.S. snowboarder Nate Holland had one inspection run on a foggy day in the mountains with limited visibility on the Olympic course.

He got busy trying to think how he would handle it if the competition went forward on Monday.

“When I first inspected the course, you think what you’re going to do off these features and you can’t see anything,” Holland said. “You’d have to ride by braille.

“I’ve studied this course and I was confident I’d be able to make it down it. But there’s that screwiness factor that [having] no visibility adds.”

Said Tim Watter of Switzerland: “The top was really bad. You can’t see two meters.”

Holland and Watter were talking with several reporters behind the finish area, not long after the men’s snowboard cross event was officially rescheduled for Tuesday morning. The seeding runs have been eliminated and the competition will open with the round of 16.

The other three Americans in snowboard cross are 20-year-old Trevor Jacob, Nick Baumgartner and Alex Deibold. Jacob and Deibold are first-time Olympians.

Holland, 35, has run the gamut of weather conditions. In his two other Olympics, he placed 14th in Turin in 2006, and just missed the podium in Vancouver, finishing fourth.

“We’re snowboarders,” he said. “It’s an outdoor sport. This happens all the time. I’m more thankful they were able to postpone it a day. This fog, it’s super dense up there. It’s the Olympics, we want to have the best riders win, and not having anything screwy.

“I was ready. That was a free high going up the chairlift. I was getting pumped. It was just a dress rehearsal. We’ll be back tomorrow and let it roll from there.

“It’s time to drop the hammer and the sickle on this course.”

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