The day started as usual...lift loads at 7, jury inspection of the course at 7:30, racers inspection at 8:30, POV racer (a skier goes down the course with a camera and describes the course along the way for the TV broadcast) at 10:45, followed by 6 forerunners and then racer Bib 1 at 11 am.
Clearly - it is so much more than that. Here are Sled Dogs Bruce Boulding and Andre Labine with the air fence crew (complete with industrial leaf blowers to keep the fences inflated.)
Racers inspection
As the day spins up, more and more people arrive at the start - the timing crew from Swiss Timing, OBS (Olympic Broadcast Service) cameramen, sound guys, techs appear and the media photographers and other broadcasters come by. These photos were taken by one of the photographers who set up remote cameras each day:
My buddy Luca (starter) and I in the start.
Everything was going just fine until the wind gusts started to pick up. The Jeongseon course has 4 jumps on it and wind (and especially wind gusts) aren't good when you are going 120 kmh.
So after 3 forerunners, the training run was halted at 10:55 am and the decision was made to move the start down to the SuperG start. Here is the Chief Race Director, Markus announcing the change.
The Super G start & façade was already in place. In fact, the SG start tent was being used for course equipment storage as the SuperG event isn't for another week. All crews jumped to move cameras, timing equipment, shovel out a more level area near the start posts and by 11:30 am, we were back in business.
It was a good test of reacting to weather changes.
It wasn't a top to bottom training run but it allowed the racers one more chance to ski most of the course.
B.
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