Women’s Downhill Postponed; 3 Swiss Injured

A World Cup women’s downhill race at Aspen, Colo., was stopped and postponed because of poor conditions Friday, leaving three Swiss skiers in splints and leader Karen Percy of Canada unhappy.

Limited visibility triggered crashes by Switzerland’s Maria Walliser, Vreni Schneider and Beatrice Gafner, all of whom suffered injuries to their right knees and will miss the rest of the season. Walliser is the defending World Cup overall champion, Schneider the double Olympic gold medalist who is tied with teammate Michaela Figini for the 1988 World Cup overall lead.

Eleven skiers had started when the snow intensified and the race was stopped for the third and final time. Walliser, Schneider and Gafner fell in the same area--a hard right-hand turn that leads into a dip near the bottom of the course. They lost control in the compression and slammed into a fence.

“I knew there was a problem in the compression turn,” Walliser said. “Visibility was poor, and I was too late setting up for it.”

Percy, the 21-year-old Canadian who won two bronze medals in the Winter Games, had been in first place with a time of 1 minute 22.36 seconds, and teammate Laurie Graham was second in 1:23.47.

“It’s upsetting for me because I was winning,” a tearful Percy said. “It would have been my first World Cup victory.

“The compression has been there for five training runs. Everybody knows it’s there. It hasn’t changed, it hasn’t moved. With the flat light, it’s hard to see, so you really have to concentrate on being ready for it. Laurie and I made it through there absolutely fine.”

The downhill was rescheduled for today.