Downhill Might Be Postponed Again

The Olympic men’s downhill, canceled Sunday because of snow only minutes before its scheduled start, may be postponed again Monday because of poor weather.

Race referee Matjaz Kranjc said more snow and high winds are expected in the Hakuba area.

Of the decision to cancel Sunday’s downhill, Kranjc said: “It is a pity to cancel the race, but it is the Olympics and the racers should have the best race possible. We will try again for tomorrow.”

Visibility isn’t the only concern for downhillers, who travel at speeds reaching 80 mph. Too much snow on a course can also cause delays, with workers required to “slide-slip” the excess snow off the run.

Workers at Nagano have so far been adept at course maintenance. Six to eight inches of snow fell the night before Saturday’s final training run, yet the start time was only delayed two hours.

Olympic downhills have been postponed before. There were three delays at Squaw Valley in 1964, one postponement at Calgary in 1988 and three more at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.

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Saturday was a bad day for Austria’s Hans and Franz. Somebody needed to pump them up.

Hans Knauss, Werner Franz, Josef Strobl and Stefan Eberharter, four of the fastest downhill racers in the world, did not make the final cut for the Olympic downhill because they ski for Austria instead of Albania.

Each nation is allowed four participants per Alpine event, meaning the powerful Austrian team had to conduct an elimination tournament that was an Olympic event in itself.

Austria granted Hermann Maier, the World Cup overall leader, and Andreas Schifferer, the World Cup downhill leader, automatic downhill byes, leaving six Austrians to fight for the two other Olympic downhill spots.

The Austrians deemed Thursday’s training run a practice session. They declared one Olympic spot would be awarded to the top Austrian finisher in Friday’s practice run, the other in Saturday’s.

Hannes Trinkl locked up one spot Friday, leaving Knauss, Franz, Eberharter, Josef Strobl and his brother, Fritz, to fight it out for the final berth.

Fritz Strobl got it by winning Saturday’s training run with a time of 1 minute 52.26.

Justice?

Eberharter ranks fifth in the World Cup downhill standings, Franz is ninth. And neither was allowed to ski in downhill, the premier Olympic Alpine event.

Where was Franz going after missing the cut?

“I go home,” he said.

Justice?

Franz won Thursday’s training run, but the Austrians had already deemed that a practice session.

Downhill is Franz’s specialty. Eberharter and the others will get chances in other events.

“I do super-G and GS, so it’s not so bad for me like it is for Werner Franz,” Knauss said. “It’s a hard life.”

Given the Olympic format, the hard-luck Austrians could not complain about their nation’s selection process.

“It’s a hard way, but it’s a fair way,” Knauss said.

Even Franz took it well, saying, “The best four are starting the race.”

One more note: Franz’s final training run of 1:53.32 was .37 of a second faster than the one posted by American Tommy Moe, the defending Olympic champion.