COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Athletes are racing to learn the 2022 Olympic ski racing courses.
Unlike at past Winter Olympics, most of the world's ski racers never got the chance to test out the 2022 ski racing venues in Beijing.
The pandemic has had a lot of impacts on the Olympics in Beijing, and now that the Games have started, we’re seeing how it’s impacting ski racing.
In a ski racing season, athletes see a lot of the same courses and get very comfortable with those courses. U.S. ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin said the course in Beijing was unknown right up until the Olympics started.
“We won’t see the track until we race,” Shiffrin said.
COVID-19 restrictions canceled all the Olympic ski racing test events before the Games, which has meant most of the world’s racers haven’t seen the Olympic track.
For these Olympics, ski racers have been watching video to learn a course's pitch, turns and snow conditions just before racing on the course at 60 miles an hour.
"How much you can learn from the hill from standing on it, seeing it and knowing how the terrain and snow conditions will feel,” Shiffrin said.
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