Alpine schedule is washed out again

Poor weather conditions at Whistler Creekside wrecked yet another day in the Olympic Alpine schedule as Sunday’s training run for Wednesday’s scheduled women’s downhill was washed out because of poor weather conditions.

It rained hard early Sunday morning, but the sky cleared in the late afternoon.

The women have yet to complete a training run for either the super combined, which was originally scheduled for Sunday but moved to Thursday, or the downhill. Skiers must complete at least one training run before a race.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Olympic speedskating: An item in the notes in Monday’s Vancouver Olympics section said the speedskating competition was delayed because a Zamboni had broken, spilling water onto the oval. The ice resurfacing machine was not a Zamboni but an Olympia manufactured by Resurfice Corp. of Canada. —

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By moving the super combined to Thursday, any training run the women complete for Wednesday’s downhill will satisfy the requirement for Thursday’s race, which consists of one run of downhill and one slalom run.

The women will need to complete a downhill training run either Monday or Tuesday for the women’s downhill to go off as scheduled on Wednesday.

The postponements have been welcomed by American Lindsey Vonn, still nursing a bruised shin suffered Feb. 2 while training in Austria.

Vonn has not had to make a competitive run since arriving in Whistler, though she did test her shin with some solo slalom training Sunday. She will be a heavy gold-medal favorite in the downhill and super-G.

The men completed one official downhill training run on Thursday and are hoping the weather holds for Monday’s downhill, which was postponed on Saturday. The weather is supposed to improve Monday.

If conditions allow, there will be seven straight days of skiing events. Here’s the revised schedule:

Monday: men’s downhill.

Tuesday: men’s super combined.

Wednesday: women’s downhill.

Thursday: women’s super combined.

Friday: men’s super-giant slalom.

Saturday: women’s super-G.

Sunday: men’s giant slalom.

-- Chris Dufresne

Speedskating: Swider-Peltz ninth

Her ninth-place finish in the women’s 3,000 meters was more than U.S. speedskater Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. could have asked for.

“That was a little nerve-racking,” said Swider-Peltz Jr., who finished in 4 minutes 11.16 seconds after having to wait to skate because a Zamboni had broken, spilling water onto the oval. “I just kept skating around, thinking of what I needed to do in the race and calming myself. It was a moment to remember. It’s my Olympic race. I had nothing to lose.”

Her time was the standard until the 11th pair, in which the Czech Republic’s Martina Sablikova set the gold-medal pace of 4:02.53. Considering she ranked 16th in the world in the 3,000 coming in and qualified for the U.S. team just last Dec. 27, Swider-Peltz Jr. offered no complaints.

“I was happy just to beat my pair, honestly,” she said.

Stephanie Beckert of Germany won the silver and Kristina Groves of Canada the bronze.

-- Brian Hamilton

Biathlon: Burke’s disappointment

U.S. biathlete Tim Burke has competed in all types of weather during his career. On Sunday, he got them all in one race.

On an afternoon when sunshine turned to rain and then snow, all within half an hour, Burke finished a disappointing 47th in the 10-kilometer sprint, won by Vincent Jay of France.

The top finishers had the advantage of starting early in the staggered-start event and getting off the course before skies darkened and the going turned slushy. Considered an outside shot to medal, Burke was not as fortunate and endured what he called the “most frustrating” race of his career.

The Lake Placid, N.Y., resident still has a number of events coming, including the 12.5-kilometer pursuit and the 20-kilometer individual.

“Luckily, with biathlon you have more than one chance,” he said.

Among other U.S. skiers, Jeremy Teela finished ninth, Lowell Bailey 36th and Jay Hakkinen 54th.

-- David Wharton