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Livigno: Tractors clearing the streets and locals shovelling snow from shopfronts and footpaths was the most action to be seen in Livigno on Monday after heavy overnight and early morning snowfall shuffled around Olympic events and cancelled training sessions.
It was a slower pace than the town had been used to since Milano Cortina 2026 took over for the snowboard and freestyle skiing events at the start of February – picturesque for a visitor, disruptive for an athlete.
Heavy snowfall blankets the town of Livigno in Italy.
Aerials practice was abandoned on Monday ahead of the men’s and women’s events, which get under way on Tuesday, after relentless snow made it impossible to jump.
For Australian aerial skier Reilly Flanagan, who is making his Olympic debut, the weather was disruptive, but unavoidable.
“We’ve already had two days on the site jumping and testing it out, seeing what the site is like,” Flanagan said.
“It would have been ideal to jump today, but everyone’s in the same boat, and we just have to adjust, do what we can, do a bit of visualisation and go from there.”
Reilly Flanagan at aerials practice on February 14. Credit: Getty Images
The 21-year-old from Noosaville has only been competing in aerials for five years, and has been on the World Cup circuit for the past two years, but said Monday’s conditions were up there with the worst he had seen.
“These are probably some of the worst conditions that we’ve tried to jump in. Given that we’re not jumping, the conditions are not very good, but it’s definitely not ideal with the snow.”
With the heavy snow making it difficult to move around, a slow day was on the cards for the aerials team, with a bit of Monopoly Go and Uno after a recovery session.
“Everyone’s a little bit different. We do like to do something as a team usually – we’re a very close, tight-knit team,” Flanagan said.
“We’ve been getting together, watching the other athletes compete on TV, watching the Aussies, playing a bit of cards sometimes, and sometimes that also means having a bit of alone time, switching off, doing what you need to do.”
Livigno wakes up to 13cm of fresh snow on Monday.
Olympic organisers preempted the chaos and disruption by bringing forward the men’s and women’s snowboard slopestyle qualifying event by a day, with slopestyle the event most affected by the conditions.
“Of all the Park & Pipe competitions, slopestyle is the most sensitive to speed issues due to the length and width of the course and the number of features within said course,” a spokesperson for the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said.
“With the amount of snow we have seen today, it would be nearly impossible to keep the course clear of fresh snow in a way that would allow for safe and fair competition for the athletes.”
Australian Ally Hickman competes in the slopestyle on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
However, the women’s freeski big air final was going ahead as planned on Monday evening after conditions eased throughout the day.
“Tonight for finals we will have a large contingent of course maintenance workers on site clearing fresh snow from the in-run, take-off, and landing, as required,” the FIS spokesperson said.
“With just one in-run, one take-off, and one landing, the big air course can be kept in a safe and fair condition throughout training and finals in a way that a slopestyle course cannot be.”
It’s the same for halfpipe, with training going ahead for the women’s freeski halfpipe on Monday night, which would be the first Olympic training session for 16-year-old Australian and medal hope Indra Brown.
“Again, for halfpipe, it is a much more manageable field of play, and one where slightly slower speeds do not present a safety issue,” the FIS spokesperson said.
“While slower speeds may lead to less amplitude for the athletes and lower standard of tricks performed, the conditions will be the same for everybody and the athletes will adjust their approach to training accordingly.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
