Bad weather cancels women’s World Cup downhill in Russia

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia (AP) — A women’s World Cup downhill at the 2014 Olympic resort was canceled Saturday after days of heavy snowfall affected the slope.

“Due to the course condition” organizers decided to cancel a training run and the subsequent race, the International Ski Federation said.

The unfavorable weather had already wiped out all three training days this week, forcing organizers to reschedule a mandatory test run 2 1/2 hours before the actual race on Saturday.

There was no immediate word from FIS on the super-G race scheduled for Sunday.

Overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin, who won a downhill and a super-G and placed fourth in another downhill in Bulgaria last weekend, decided at the beginning of the week to skip the event in Russia.

It is the second straight season that bad weather wipes out World Cup races here. Shiffrin had also refrained from traveling to the event last year.