Cross-country skiing-Swedes to seek time change over biting cold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China: Sweden’s cross-country ski team said on Sunday that they will ask the International Ski Federation (FIS) to start races earlier in the day at the Beijing Olympics to protect athletes from sub-zero temperatures.
The National Cross-Country Skiing Center in Zhangjiakou Mountains, about 200 km northwest of Beijing, has seen temperatures lower than the FIS competition limit of -20 degrees Celsius (-4 ° F) before the Games, with fresh winds adding an even greater cooling factor.
“We have the cooling limits we have, there is not much to say about it. I do not know if they also measure the wind effect”, says the Swedish team manager Anders Bystroem to reporters.
“If FIS says it’s -17 degrees and it’s windy, and it’s -35 degrees with the wind chill, what do you do then?”
The Swede said that the minus degrees and holding competitions in the late afternoon and early evening for the European TV audience was detrimental to the athletes’ performance.
He said he wanted Tuesday’s sprint race for women to be moved to earlier in the day.
“Yesterday the competition (women’s skiathlon) started at 16 and Frida Karlsson was completely devastated by the cold. It is not good that the sprint starts even later,” said Bystroem.
“We have talked in the team about making a request (to compete earlier) during the day if possible, at the same time I do not think it will be possible to change the time due to the Olympic schedule.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Peter Rutherford)