Posted on 02/13/2010 5:05:12 PM PST by NormsRevenge
VANCOUVER (AFP) – The Winter Olympics suffered a miserable start on Saturday when the men's skiing downhill was postponed and protests turned violent in Vancouver, but the luge went ahead despite the death of a Georgian slider.
A day after a dazzling ceremony opened the Games, the first gold medal was claimed by Switzerland's Simon Ammann, who won the normal hill ski jump ahead of Poland's Adam Malysz and Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer.
Ammann wants Miami ice ... and more girls
Dutchman Sven Kramer took out the 5,000 metre men's speedskating gold, finally capturing a title that had eluded him four years ago at Turin.
Kramer won in 6mins 14.60sec, setting an Olympic record to defeat South Korean Lee Seung-Hoon by 2.35sec with Russian Ivan Skobrev third.
Tearful Kramer captures 5,000m speedskating gold
Meanwhile, Slovakia's Anastasiya Kuzmina was a shock winner in the women's 7.5 km biathlon sprint, relegating favourite Magdalena Neuner of Germany into second and Frenchwoman Marie Dorin into third.
While those events took place, the unpredictable weather that has haunted organisers all week forced the blue-riband downhill, a medal event, to be put back until Monday.
The International Ski Federation said overnight snow and rain in the Whistler mountains followed by mild temperatures meant that skiing on the piste was out of the question.
"The piste has been badly affected these last two days by the mild temperatures and the himud conditions with snow and rain," said the FIS race director Gunter Hujara.
The women's super-combined, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was postponed until Thursday, with practice runs not possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bastards? (Check my home page, please.)
show curling!!!!! no problems there with the climate :)
Vancouver Extended Forecast
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/71892.html
Updated: 4:00 AM PST on February 13, 2010
Saturday
Rain. Overcast. High: 50 °F . Wind East 13 mph . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 0.34 in).
Saturday Night
Rain. Overcast. Low: 44 °F . Wind ESE 15 mph . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 0.86 in).
Sunday
Chance of Rain. Overcast. High: 51 °F . Wind light. Chance of precipitation 30% (water equivalent of 0.03 in).
Sunday Night
Scattered Clouds. Low: 37 °F . Wind light.
Monday
Overcast. High: 50 °F . Wind NE 6 mph .
Monday Night
Rain. Overcast. Low: 44 °F . Wind ENE 11 mph . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 0.37 in).
Tuesday
Rain. Overcast. High: 51 °F . Wind SW 8 mph . Chance of precipitation 50% (water equivalent of 0.69 in).
Tuesday Night
Chance of Rain. Partly Cloudy. Low: 37 °F . Wind SW 8 mph . Chance of precipitation 30% (water equivalent of 0.09 in).
Wednesday
Clear. High: 50 °F . Wind NW 6 mph .
Wednesday Night
Scattered Clouds. Low: 33 °F . Wind NNE 6 mph .
Thursday
Clear. High: 51 °F . Wind NE 6 mph .
Thursday Night
Clear. Low: 37 °F . Wind NNE 8 mph .
Friday
Clear. High: 51 °F . Wind NNE 8 mph .
Friday Night
Clear. Low: 49 °F . Wind NNE 8 mph . Windchill: 33 °F .
Canadian FReepers and conservatives excepted, of course! ;-)
Apparently you do not parlez Olympique.
The world has to remember that we are men — not gods. It’s winter, in an absolutely gorgeous part of the world, and we should just enjoy what God has bestowed and make the best of it. It is no one’s fault. British Columbia, and Canada in general, has more to offer than almost any venue in the world. The commentators should quit nitpicking.
The real problem is that no matter how they try in Vancouver, by trucking snow in or making it locally, the temps turn it into a wet, heavy carpet that skiers hate. It's just a really bad year for the Winter Olympics hereabouts. Too bad they didn't consider Dallas or D.C. :-(
All that stuff that blanketed the East Coast was just out of phase for the Olympics and hit to far East to benefit them much .. not much at all you can do about it.. I agree , its pretty country otherwise.
I like BC,, I especially like Victoria.
Go about 120 miles south of Vancouver and you’ll find the SAME weather...in Seattle.
None of this makes any sense to me. Why Vancouver, where the coastal temps are always fluctuating and they have to build all new facilities for the luge, the bobsled and other things when all these facilities are already in place in Calgary when they hosted the olympics in 1988.......
The end of the Cold War killed the Olympics.
The could have held the winter Olympics in Boone, NC this year.
I don't’ know, the Canadians are good people. Heck they voted better in their last national election then we did.
It did for a lot of us. Never been the same since it stopped having any meaning. Just an exhibition, an AllStar game if you will, in events nobody much cares about.
So, the writer could not say “downhill ski trail” so people might understand?
Ok...since no one else has mentioned this burning question, I will...
...what the @&%# is up with Bob Costas’ hair? Was he changing the oil in his car before airtime?
Luv it to see NBC loses millions. My day has been made.
Hey, that’s a great home page!
I’ve been trying to find the video of the Costas piece last night describing the historic and friendly US/Canada relationship. It was very well done. But I haven’t had any luck finding the clip.
64 is close to average in San Jose. A lot of fruit trees will normally blossom this week. Vancouver is close to typical too.
Search the web for Vancouver and San Jose average temps.
Vancouver was selecyed to give the Global Warmers a big MSM boost.
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