Olympic Women's Snowboard Slopestyle Qualifying Canceled Due to Winds

Strong winds forced organizers to cancel the qualifying portion of the women's snowboard slopestyle competition.

The qualifying portion of the women's snowboard slopestyle competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang has been cancelled due to strong winds at the Phoenix Snow Park complex. All 27 competitors will advance to the final, which will take place on Monday. 

The qualifying was scheduled to take place right after the final of the men's slopestyle competition, which was won by 17-year-old American Red Gerard. Winds affected the men's final and after delaying the women's qualifying competition for 40 minutes, organizers decided to cancel that portion of the competition altogether and send each competitor to the final rather than postpone or condense the qualification round. 

The women's slopestyle was scheduled to begin on Monday 1:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. EST on Sunday) and was cancelled shortly after 2:00 p.m.

Earlier Monday, the final for the men's downhill skiing was postponed. That competition 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. 

Apart from strong winds, the conditions in PyeongChang appear to be quite good. Temperatures have remained freezing and skies have generally been clear, but strong winds have had an affect on nearly ever outdoor competition in the Games' early going.