Blizzard Warning Delays Mikaela Shiffrin, Eileen Gu and Other Olympians’ Medal Quest at Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

After almost 10 days of the Beijing Winter Olympics being underway, Beijing has seen its first snowfall of the year. Up until now, the 2022 Winter Olympics were using artificial snow instead of natural snow. Consequently, American alpine skier, Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait another day for her next event.

Shiffrin has suffered from not one, but two bad crashes at the event so far. The two-time gold medalist would be looking to redeem herself at the upcoming events. However, the China Meteorological Administration issued a blizzard warning for Sunday, February 13.

Thus, many events were postponed, including Mikaela Shiffrin and her rival and friend Eileen Gu’s women’s events.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s practice canceled after a blizzard warning

As Beijing saw its first snowfall of the year, the Chinese Meteorological Administration issued a blizzard warning, predicting significant snowfall. Thus, the Olympic administration rescheduled the women’s freeski slopestyle qualification event to Monday, rather than hold it on Sunday.

Heavy snowfall would lead to reduced and poor visibility, a risk no one involved is ready to undertake. Gold medalist Eileen Gu would have been eager to participate, but a single day’s delay should do little to her excitement and preparations.

Moreover, even American two-time gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin was not able to compete in her second downhill practice. After two crashes in women’s slalom and giant slalom events, Shiffrin was eager to redeem herself and perform her best.

Now, with the blizzard delay, her event, too, will have to wait. Shiffrin would have had her second downhill training on Sunday. However, owing to the warning and delay, it looks like it will go forward on Monday instead.

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In fact, twenty-seven skiers would have taken to the snow on Sunday to participate in the qualifiers, including home favorite Eileen Gu. Now, however, the event will be on Monday.

Mikaela Shiffrin certainly enjoyed her night off

Owing to the blizzard delay, Shiffrin had a night off, since her downhill practice stood canceled. Nevertheless, she seems to have made most of the situation.

Shiffrin took to Twitter to reveal what she’d done the night prior, and apparently, she munched on goldfish while inadvertently falling asleep.

In fact, when she woke up, she described “a massacre of crumbs in (her) bed”. The 22-year-old has some jokes, too, as she says that she’s “not really sure how (her) dentist is going to feel about it”.

Shiffrin has taken her failings at the Beijing Winter Olympics so far in stride and is looking forward to a great set of events that are yet to come.

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