WORLD CUP SKIING : Heavy Snow Postpones Race, Foils Kitt

AJ Kitt and this town have a problem. Seems like every time he comes here poised to capture a World Cup race, something bad happens.

Two years ago, a couple of international ski officials with their own agendas wrecked Kitt’s weekend when they abruptly canceled the Aspen Roch Cup after 16 racers already had gone down the course.

Kitt was leading at the time.

There was no such controversy Saturday, but there was disappointment.

Kitt, who won Thursday’s training run and was raring to re-establish himself as a downhill power, was denied again, this time by a heavy snowstorm that forced the postponement of America’s Downhill.

Is Kitt jinxed?

“I just think it’s bad luck,” he said.

Race organizers will try to run the downhill today in place of a scheduled super-giant slalom, which has been rescheduled for Friday at Kvitfjell, Norway.

But the weather outlook for Aspen is not good. Heavy, wet snow fell much of Saturday and more was expected.

While snow is welcomed, often prayed for, at ski resorts, too much is the bane of downhill skiers and course groomers. Racers demand that a course be packed hard, and fresh snowfall can make a course “grabby” and potentially dangerous.

Even if the weather breaks, there is a chance the course could not be properly groomed in time to save the weekend.

This would be most unfortunate for Kitt, who did well last weekend with a second in the super-G at Whistler, Canada.

“I’m here to race, not to vacation and eat in nice restaurants,” the 27-year-old veteran from Rochester, N.Y., said. “But I want to do it in safe, decent conditions.”

With teammate and Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe out with minor injuries, Kitt had every intention of hogging the spotlight.

“There was no question in my mind I was going to win the training run Thursday, from the time we drove into Aspen,” Kitt said. “I knew I was going to win the first training run.

“It’s confidence, it’s brash, you can say it’s cocky, but when an athlete has that kind of confidence, well, I know how (Bill) Johnson felt in ’84 when he won the Olympic (downhill) gold medal. I’m not going to go out there and pronounce I’m going to win, but you know it in your heart.”