Trucks carrying snow drive along the road at Cypress
Mountain, a venue for freestyle skiing and snowboard, in
West Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, February 4,
2010.
Vancouver Olympic officials are confident concerns about
the warm weather's affect on conditions at Cypress Mountain
soon will be forgotten.
Dave Cobb, VANOC's executive vice president, said Tuesday that
both the freestyle skiing and snowboarding courses are at an
Olympic-quality caliber. And he noted that members of the
international media will see that for themselves later on
Tuesday afternoon.
"I think today, once you get up there, the story of Cypress
will change largely from a weather story to an athletic
story," Cobb said.
Tuesday marks the second day of freestyle skiing training
sessions. VANOC limited access to Cypress on Monday to
coaches and athletes. After testing the course, World Cup
freestyle ski champion Hannah Kearney said course conditions
were "absolutely fine."
The conditions at Cypress have dominated headlines leading up
to games, which open Friday. Officials spent the past two
weeks flying in and trucking in snow from around British
Columbia to build a base on the two courses after the region
experienced the warmest January on record.
Though temperatures dropped to near freezing conditions on
Tuesday, the long-range forecast is mixed and includes the
possibility of rain through Saturday.
The first event scheduled is women's moguls qualifying on
Saturday, with the finals to be raced later that day. Men's
qualifying and finals follow on Sunday.
Vancouver Games CEO Jack Furlong described the efforts to get
Cypress ready for the Olympics as being the committee's
greatest challenge.
"The amount of work that has been done against these
conditions is really hard to believe," Furlong said. "You'll
go up there today and see the venues, and I think you'll be
quite surprised by how much has been moved, and how hard
they've worked to get it right."
Furlong was thrilled when he woke up Tuesday to find the
temperature down to the freezing mark.
"I thought maybe the people in the sky are going to stop
playing chicken with us," he said, referring to Mother
Nature. "Obviously, when we get a little help, it's great.
But we're assuming we're not getting any."
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