The alpine skiing events at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang have been met with delay after delay, which has at least given Doug Lewis some time to view other events.
Lewis, from Fayston, is in PyeongChang working for NBC Radio and Westwood One Radio, covering the alpine events. However, due to large amount of wind that has reached up to 60 mph at the Olympic venue all alpine events thus far have been delayed. The men’s alpine combined is the only event to have been completed.
On Thursday, Wednesday night on the East Coast, the women are scheduled to compete in the GS and the men are scheduled to race in the downhill.
The condensed schedule will make things a little tougher on the athletes as well as members of the media. For example, on Wednesday, February 14, Lewis and his coworkers had to decide between the men’s downhill and the women’s slalom event to go to. Since Mikaela Shiffrin is a heavy favorite to win the event and a defending gold medalist, they opted for the women’s slalom. Both events were postponed.
Lewis said that the FIS (International Ski Federation) and the Olympic Committee have done a good job of notifying athletes early so they can refocus and rest in their time off. Or, they can use virtual reality goggles to simulate the race. Lewis did note, however, that using the goggles to simulate a race could cause one to feel nauseous. Nonetheless, the athletes are able to inspect the course.
Lewis said that other than not being able to work, the Olympics have been great. He also noted that the mountains are very similar to those found in Vermont.
With the cancelations, Lewis has been freed up to make it to as many Olympic events as possible. He noted that he was able to see Red Gerard, from the United States, win gold in the snowboard slopestyle competition and he was able to watch the snowboarding halfpipe qualification round.
