After the Alpine skiing men’s downhill was postponed, the slopestyle event in women’s snowboarding was also forced to cancel its qualifying round.
Weather is already becoming a factor in Pyeongchang during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Several events have been forced to shift their schedules after wind and cold have wreaked havoc on the well-laid plans. Cold temperatures had already been a factor, but wind has picked up to the extent that it has forced events to shift on the calendar.
The men were able to get in their runs for the snowboarding slopestyle medal round at Phoenix Park. Red Gerard earned the first gold medal for the United States, finishing ahead of Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris.
Action was supposed to continue at Phoenix Park. But the women weren’t able to get in their qualifying rounds before inclement weather forced the cancellation of the event. Earlier in the day the men’s downhill was cancelled at Jeongseon Alpine Centre. Olympic organizers determined that conditions were not safe enough to keep going.
The beauty and the curse of winter sports such as slopestyle is that they are beholden to Mother Nature. While indoor events don’t have to worry about such matters, the outdoor sports must work around such breakdowns in the weather.
What will the medal round look like now for women’s slopestyle?
All 27 of the women slated to compete in the qualifiers will instead advance to the medal round on Monday in South Korea. The weather conditions have forced organizers to get creative with how they will finish out the slopestyle competition.
The women's snowboard slopestyle qualifier is canceled due to wind. All riders will compete in tomorrow's final. 💨 #olympics
— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) February 11, 2018
The competition in slopestyle was originally supposed to provide competitors moving on to the medal round with three runs to rack up the highest score in the podium hunt. Now, with the field more than twice as large as expected, each snowboarder will get only two chances to snatch a medal.
With a smaller sample size, we could see some unexpected results at Phoenix Park. That, of course, is if the weather improves in time for the finals to go on as scheduled.
Next: How many medals will the United States win?
Here’s how you can watch the expanded Olympic women’s snowboarding slopestyle medal round online.
Date: Sunday, Feb. 11
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Pyeongchang, South Korea
Venue: Phoenix Park
Live Stream: NBC Olympics, FuboTV
Keep it tuned in here are we bring you the latest live streams and updated results for each snowboarding event over the course of the 2018 Winter Olympics.