Olympic Men’s Downhill Skiing Final Postponed Due to Strong Winds, Moved to Wednesday

The Olympic men’s downhill event will have to wait until Wednesday (Thursday in Korea).

The Olympic men’s downhill final has been postponed due to high winds on the course forecasted to persist throughout the day, skiing’s international governing body announced. 

The race will now be held at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday (9 p.m. Wednesday ET). As a result, the men’s Super-G race originally scheduled for Thursday has been moved to Friday. 

The event was supposed to begin at 9 p.m. ET Saturday (11 a.m. Sunday morning local time). It was to be the first medal awarded in alpine skiing. Matthias Mayer of Austria is the defending gold medalist and Switzerland’s Beat Feuz is the 2017 world champion.

Conditions are favorable on the mountain, aside from winds gusting up to 45 mph. Temperatures are expected to remain below freezing in Jeongseon until Tuesday, with warmer daytime highs forecasted later in the week. Temperatures at the top of the mountain should remain below freezing, however. 

The downhill training run for the men’s alpine combined, scheduled for Monday, was canceled due to the weather forecast.