ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — a men’s world cup Slalom came to a halt Thursday after 19 skiers left on a course that was muddier than snow-white and too peril to continue.
The French team said Victor Muffat-Jeandet, an Olympic bronze medalist in the combined four years ago, broke his right ankle while skiing. There was no estimate as to whether he will miss the Beijing Olympics, which will be open in four weeks.
The race organizers were mauled by skiers, including World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault, for starting the race on a soft surface that quickly go-down.
“Today was just too much @fisalpine,” Pinturault, a longtime teammate of Muffat-Jeandet, wrote on Twitter to the International Ski Federation. “I’m just irritated and I have a heavy heart for my friend.”
In warm weather, the second race was held at the Crveni Spust circuit in three days. Some skiers were more than three seconds behind leader Sebastian Foss-Solevaag on the rapidly softening snow.
In a strong gesture, the Swiss rider Luca Aerni crossed the finish line and repeatedly tapped with a finger on his helmet to indicate that it was unwise to run.
“These are not world cup conditions,” two-time Slalom world champion Henrik Kristoffersen said after his race. “It’s peril in some parts. Marco (black) and Loïc (Meillard) said that the grass was passing. To the onlookers, I think it looks weird.”
The Ski Federation said the race was stopped due to “adverse conditions and in the best interests of safety and fairness”.”
The organizers allowed the start of the race, although they consulted with the skiers on Wednesday, when the previously scheduled race was postponed for a day.
“It’s strange that you have to ask the athletes,” Kristoffersen said, adding that only half of the top slalom runners wanted to start. “The FIS needs to have enough knowledge to know what it is for a ski racer, for a coach, to decide if it is good enough to run or not.”
French downhill veteran Johan Clarey wrote on Twitter: “Hey @fisalpine, are you still the boss of your own Worldcup Tour?”
On the same course, a women’s Slalom was held on Tuesday, won by the outstanding Slovak Petra Vlhova, although the creation of a fair race surface could have come at the expense of a after race.
“If the women hadn’t been driving two days ago, we might have had a chance,” Kristoffersen said. “But they worked too much with salt. The snow is completely dead, it is unstable, it is weak.”
The men’s slalom runners will get another Chance Sunday in Adelboden, Switzerland. The Resort’s classic giant slalom is scheduled for Saturday.
On the women’s circuit, one of the busiest — and richest — races of the Season, scheduled for next week, has been moved from Flachau to Schladming, Austria, with an increase in the number of recent times matters near Salzburg.
The annual night slalom under the floodlights pays the winner more than 62,000 Swiss francs, compared with 45,000 Swiss francs for all other women’s world cups. The race, now in Schladming, is scheduled for Tuesday.