VANCOUVER — Rain cancelled training runs, forcing the postponement of the women's super-combined on Sunday, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm or slow the speed of the U.S. women's mogul team.
"I'm having so much fun out here," said first-time Olympian and Park City resident Heather McPhie. "It's pouring rain, but good thing we don't melt. They're wiping my goggles off perfectly up top and the training's going good. ... The course is holding up really well."
Shannon Bahrke, who won a silver medal in 2002, said athletes were just trying to adjust to whatever Mother Nature threw at them each day.
"Every day has been absolutely different," Bahrke said. "The first day we got up here, it was clear, beautiful, but the course was a little bit icy. Every day it's changed a little bit."
The women will begin qualification runs this afternoon at Cypress Mountain at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific Time), with finals to follow at 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, at Whistler, the women's downhill training was cancelled on Friday and Saturday, forcing officials to postpone the super-combined competition scheduled for Sunday. Officials won't schedule a competition time until they are able to schedule and complete a training run for the women.
Athletes must complete at least one training run before competing in an alpine event. While it was bad news for most of the women, for the reigning World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn it was a bit of luck after an unfortunate accident last week.
Vonn won the final World Cup and was in Austria training when she caught the tip of her ski on a gate and fell forward thrusting her shin into the edge of her boot. It caused a severe muscular bleeding, which Vonn called "the most painful injury" of her career.
"I'm feeling OK," Vonn said after inspecting the course Friday. "I think I'm lucking out because of all the cancellations. Normally I would be disappointed, but for my shin, I think this is the best possible scenario. This gives me more time to rest up and heal. Obviously, I'm looking forward to running the course. But at this point, as much rest as I can get on my leg will be great."
She said she thought officials did the right thing by cancelling training because the near-constant rain is taking a toll on the course.
"The course workers are doing the best they can ... but it's definitely not in raceable condition," she said. "So I think cancelling the training run tomorrow is a good move. Especially for me, because now I get another day off."
It also means another day of rest and recovery for Stacey Cook, who crashed during a training run Thursday.
Vonn said she was more confident after skiing down the mountain after a course inspection Thursday.
"I wanted to make sure I could be able to ski, safely down," Vonn said. "If you're skiing defensively, it's always dangerous. I pushed myself yesterday and I felt like I could have done the training run obviously with a lot of pain, but I could have done it.
Men's ski jumping
In men's ski jumping, all three U.S. athletes qualified for today's final in the Normal Hill individual competition at Whistler Olympic Park in the first competition of the 2010 Olympic Games.
Among those three is Park City's Anders Johnson, who is making his second appearance at the Olympic Games. He tied for 40th and earned the final qualifying spot.
Peter Frenette, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., was 30th and Nick Alexander, of Lebanon, N.H., tied for 35th place.
Interestingly, Johnson led the U.S. in training jumps the day before on Thursday.
"I expected him (to be) even better than it was today," said Jochen Danneberg, who coaches the U.S. team. "He can do it much better, and he did it better in training. So now, I hope he can show his true ski champion tomorrow."
The first round of the finals begins at 9:45 a.m., with finals at 10:45 a.m.
Johnson's sister, Alissa Johnson, competes on the World Cup Circuit but couldn't compete in the Olympics because the IOC doesn't currently allow women to participate in ski jumping.
Johnson and several other top jumpers from around the world actually sued VANOC under Canadian Human Rights laws, but the courts, while sympathetic with the women jumpers, said it didn't have jurisdiction over the issue.
Men's alpine skiing
In men's alpine skiing, Utah's Steven Nyman beat out Idaho's Erik Fisher for the final spot in the men's downhill race, which will be held this morning.
In addition to Sundance's Nyman, Bode Miller, Andrew Weibrecht, and Marco Sullivan will represent the U.S. as well.
"Steven has been right on line," said head coach Sasha Rearick Friday morning. "He's just put in greater effort, he's also been progressing faster and skiing more consistently. He deserves the opportunity to race here."
Rearick said the team is deep and expects the decision will motivate Fisher to just work harder in the future.
He also said Miller and Weibrecht were skiing well.
"Bode had been skiing pretty fast," said Rearick. "He's been consistent and he's been fast in training. We're looking forward to seeing him put down his finals run."
Rearick also praised Weibrecht's skiing thus far.
"In the technical sections of the hill, he's been skiing fantastic," Rearick said. "He actually showed the Canadians great lines two days ago...It is fun to see him be able to tackle a hill like this. He's in a good place mentally and in a good place to race."
The men's downhill is schedule for 11:45 a.m. at Creekside Whistler today.
The women's training for this morning has been cancelled to allow officials to focus on the men's downhill race. That means the women's super-combined, scheduled for Sunday, has to be postponed. Skiers are required to take at least one training run before they are allowed to compete. Only one woman has completed a training run.
e-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com