World Cup downhill in Sochi called off for poor snow surface
United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine ski World Cup women’s parallel slalom city event, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Germany’s Christina Geiger, left, and third-placed Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson, in Hammarbybacken, Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — The second-to-last women’s downhill of the World Cup season has been canceled in Russia after poor course conditions meant a mandatory training session was canceled for three straight days.
The International Ski Federation said the Saturday morning race slot at the Rosa Khutor venue will now go to a super-G, which was scheduled for Sunday.
A second super-G will be raced Sunday, using the vacant day to reschedule a race canceled in January at St. Anton, Austria, the governing body said Friday.
The course is staging its first top-level Alpine ski races since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
This weekend, American star Mikaela Shiffrin will be mathematically confirmed as the winner of her third straight World Cup overall title.
Shiffrin leads the standings by more than 700 points from her main rival Petra Vlhova of Slovakia. With 100 points awarded for a win, only six races will remain when the circuit leaves Russia.
Shiffrin’s title is already a formality as both she and Vlhova, who are technical race specialists, are skipping the speed races this weekend.
All other skiers trail at least 900 points behind Shiffrin, who has a career-best 14 World Cup wins this season. /kga
