Women’s combined postponed because of weather

The first women’s Alpine race of the Olympics, scheduled for Sunday in Whistler Creek, has been postponed because of poor weather conditions.

The women could not run the downhill without completing a training run. When it was deemed in Whistler Creek that conditions would not allow a training run Saturday, it automatically meant the Sunday race could not go off as scheduled.

This is bad news for Olympic organizers but good news for American skier Lindsey Vonn, who will now get an extra day to rest the bruised shin she injured Feb. 2 in a training run.

The men’s downhill, as of Friday afternoon, was still scheduled to be run Saturday, though weather conditions are expected to be poor.

-- Chris Dufresne Shaun White, rock star

Forget the musical guests ready to rock Vancouver at night once the Games opened.

Snowboarder Shaun White apparently is filling the gap with his guitar in the athletes’ village.

“I haven’t heard him sing, but he definitely likes to rip his guitar -- he brought his amp out here,” Olympic teammate Louie Vito said. “We’re working on some songs, blaring in the courtyard.

“He’s gonna work on getting the whole national anthem tonight, so we can play it every morning and wake everybody up.”

Waking up the village is one thing.

But White has managed to stir and push the sport, almost by himself, with his array of tricks, most recently the Double McTwist 1260.

“Well, you know I call him the Mike Jordan of boarding,” said another Olympic snowboarding teammate, Scotty Lago. “He’s the best of the best. I’m proud to be on the team with him, for sure. We grew up riding together.”

White is the heavy favorite for the men’s halfpipe event, which is Wednesday at Cypress Mountain.

“Shaun has off days, though,” said defending women’s champion Hannah Teter.

She paused for effect, smiling: “Maybe once every 10 years he has an off day. It could be on the 17th. Probably not.”

-- Lisa Dillman Spillane catches a break with skis

U.S. ski jumper Johnny Spillane was at the bar at the top of the normal ski hill during training Friday and about to head down the ramp when he noticed his left ski was broken.

“When I was on the bar, I looked down. I was sliding out and pulled back off,” Spillane said.

He rushed to get his backup skis in time to make the third and final run.

While disappointed over losing his favorite skis on the eve of what many expect to be a breakout Winter Games for the American Nordic combined team, Spillane considers himself lucky for realizing the situation before propelling himself down the in-run.

“That would have been a real problem,” he said. “For me, the big hill is more my event anyway.”

The Nordic combined on the normal hill is Sunday, but the large hill competition isn’t until Feb. 25.

“It’s going to take a little bit to get used to these because these are significantly different from what I’ve been using,” Spillane said. “I’ll do my best.”

Spillane said he knew something was amiss after arriving in Whistler earlier in the week.

“It’s been feeling weird for a few days,” he said. “It’s been feeling loose, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. But what was actually happening was the ski broke, and the binding would pull off the ski and it would pop back in. It finally pulled all the way off on that last one, so it was really good I didn’t jump.”

-- associated press