Day Two on snow - the first DH training run

Today was our first scheduled training run for the downhill. There are 3 training runs scheduled before the race. The weather forecast has been very accurate so I woke up to see a brightly lit access up to the finish area out my hotel window.

 

 

When I got to the start, the sun was just coming up out of the early morning early haze

 

As Start Referee, I am tethered to the start area and during the race, I am on an even shorter leash.

 

Today was the first time the athletes were able to inspect the race course. Most came through the start tent and many took selfies while in the gate - it did cause a bit of a bottleneck as a few even posted to their social media while standing there....

 

The slip crews were kept busy keep the track clean. Here they are jumping in at the end of the inspection period...

 

 

Remember that snow wall I mentioned on an earlier post - well, the crew did a very impressive job of buffering the generator noise...

 

Here, part of the Russian start crew are protecting the bibs before race time...

 

Race Director Hannes Trinkl is here leading the dye crew to 'paint the course'. They are referred to 'Picassos'....

 

Given this is the first training run, it is a training run for everyone - the athletes, the organizing committee, the course workers, the officials, the broadcaster, the photographers - all of us.

 

Here photographers install remote cameras to see what works best to capture the racers as the leave the start gate.

 

Each athlete has a small peloton assisting them as they enter the start gate....coach, tech, water bottle holder....

 

Those 3 remote cameras stared (and clicked at me) all day. I plan to shave for tomorrow's training run.

I also had a boom camera looking over my shoulder for the entire race.  I stand adjacent to the racer when they are in the start gate.

 

 

It was an excellent training run. One athlete went down but will be racing again tomorrow. At the conclusion of the race, the jury and the organizing committee do a debrief so that everyone learns from today to make tomorrow's training run even better. Today did mark a significant milestone for the local Olympic organizing committee as it kicked off the alpine events.

Here is what the Olympic bibs look like. I take them all to the start each morning for distribution to the athletes. The checker plate in the background is the floor of the gondola I was riding up in. There were not 124 athletes in the race - this was one of the spare bibs I carry in the event - one goes missing  ; )

 

 

Tonight's Team Captains meeting (yes, I have a spot at the big table at the front) went well - except for the concern that the weather forecast calls for high winds on downhill race day (Sunday) and for several days after that....and the forecasts for this area are very reliable.

 

 

Unfortunately, the high winds have the possibility of shutting down the gondola and definitely impacting athletes coming off any of the jumps. It could create a bit of havoc with the scheduling of the downhill which is one of (if not) the premiere event at the games.  Fingers crossed.

 

B.

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