SALT LAKE CITY (voa) – The women’s Olympic downhill skiing has been postponed after high winds on the Wildflower course made racing dangerous.
The event has been rescheduled for Tuesday, leaving just five gold medals at stake in Monday’s competition, including pairs figure skating, the men’s and women’s biathlon, men’s luge and men’s snowboard halfpipe.
Nine different countries have won the nine gold medals at stake in the first two days of the 19th Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sunday featured upsets in the men’s downhill and the men’s K-90 ski jumping as Austrian policeman Fritz Strobl and 20-year-old Simon Amman of Switzerland beat more heralded competitors to gain the gold.
Sunday also brought a world record as Claudia Pechstein of Germany roared to victory in the women’s three-thousand-meter speed skating.
The host United States gained its first gold Sunday as 18-year-old Kelly Clark snatched victory with an almost perfect final run in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe, edging out France’s Doriane Vidal.
The gold medal in the Nordic combined – an event that combines ski jumping and cross-country racing – went to Finland’s Samppa Lajunen, who finished first in the 15-kilometer cross-country skiing race. It was Finland’s first gold in the combined in more than half a century since Heikki Hasu won in St. Moritz in 1948.
