YANQING, China — Consistent winds and high-speed gusts forced organizers to postpone the men’s Olympic downhill here on Sunday, delaying Alpine skiing’s debut at the Games and amplifying worries that weather could wreak havoc on them.
Sunday’s race was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Officials, citing “high winds,” initially pushed it back to noon, then to 1 p.m., then to 2. Finally, an hour before that revised start time, they sent everybody home for the day, and rescheduled it for Monday (Sunday night in the U.S.).
Organizers said it was “in the best interest of safety and fairness for the racers to delay [the competition] to another day.