Olympic officials are insisting that forecasts of days of rain and fog won't put a damper on the Games, although they admit there could be delays and postponements.
"Weather has not been our friend and it's continuing to challenge us," said Cathy Priestner Allinger, 2010's head of sport, Thursday.
First it was Cypress Mountain, where 9,000 cubic metres of snow had to be trucked in as rain drowned the courses.
This week it was fog at Whistler, which forced the postponement Wednesday of the men's downhill training runs. Priestner Allinger said that although the men's training runs went ahead Thursday, the women's training runs had to be postponed because of fog.
"It's raining on Cypress and there's a lot of fog," said Priestner Allinger. "We're continuing to protect the field of play as much as we can."
She said visibility was a more current problem on Cypress.
"Today, visibility is 100 to 400 metres," she said. "We need 250 metres on the moguls to be able to execute the races."
Despite the weather forecast, which calls for more rain and warm temperatures for the next five days, she said she was looking forward to the men's downhill race on Saturday.
"As it sits today, we're counting on running that race," she said.
She said the International Ski Federation will make the decision whether to delay or postpone races based on conditions.
Once a decision has been made, Olympic officials work with FIS, the broadcasters, and Environment Canada to work out when to try to reschedule the race, along with Olympic transportation and ticketing officials.
She warned that sometimes spectators won't learn of delays until they get to the venue.
"It's our No. 1 priority to get the event off the day it's scheduled," she added.
John Furlong, 2010 CEO, said he couldn't remember a Winter Games that didn't face weather challenges and delays.
"Hopefully we won't have too many but I don't think it's reasonable to think that, in 16 days, there won't be some things that have to be moved," he said.
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