Add another blemish to a week that has been pretty much a complete disaster for Olympic organizers in Sochi. Training for women’s downhill skiing was delayed for more than an hour on Thursday after it was determined that one of the jumps was too large. After one skier injured her knees, you could even argue it was downright dangerous.
American Laurenne Ross was the first skier down the trail, and she described her run as “intimidating.” Two more women followed her before workers decided to shave some snow off of one particular jump. Italian Daniela Merighetti said she injured both of her knees during the first practice run.
“I’m upset they didn’t have more expert forerunners,” Merighetti said, via Madison.com Sports. “They would’ve known not to send us down.”
Apparently the forerunners who tested out the track did not reach the same speed that the Olympic skiers reach, so they did not sail as far through the air when hitting the jump.
“The problem is we don’t have really good test runners and forerunners,” Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather explained. “We should have two very good forerunners, just retired, paying them for one or two years, doing just that. Then we would have a responsible test run and then it would be much safer.”
Other skiers said they did not have any issues, while Ross said the jump made you “feel like you are never going to come down.” Merighetti said she was going to have medical examiners check out her knees. Fortunately, no other skiers appear to have been hurt.
No toilet paper, brown drinking water, construction problems and dangerous ski jumps — welcome to Sochi.
