Word: whistler
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...rainy weather blotted out the men's Olympic downhill event Saturday, but Olympians weren't the only ones not skiing. The slopes of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, which comprise the Games' alpine racing area, were relatively deserted. With only about 10% of the mountains being used for downhill races, that left the vast majority of these two mountains wide open in peak season, with no wait at the lifts, when normally they'd be choked with skiers. (See 25 Winter Olympic athletes to watch...
...normal weekend day Whistler draws about 20,000 skiers. Barely 10,000 made it up the slopes the weekend before the Games began. It's an oddity known in the business as "Olympic aversion." Two million people are scheduled to descend on the Vancouver area to watch the Olympic Games over the next two weeks, but although the competition is staged at one of the world's great ski areas, very few visitors will actually ski. "The snow is spectacular. The town is Olympic ready, Games ready. The energy is off the charts," says Bill Jensen, CEO of Intrawest...
...little of that energy will be expended on the mountain. Visitor traffic was down so much the weekend before the Games that Whistler had to advertise the fact that it was open. Part of the reason for the drop in attendance was that the ski resort "lost control of the parking lots on February 1," Jensen explains (they were ceded to the Olympics), so day skiers weren't making the trip...
Weather has also been one of the big stories here. Cypress Mountain, which hosts the half-pipe and mogul skiing events, is so barren of snow the white stuff had to be trucked in from the colder reaches of the Great White North. At Whistler, it's been raining at the bottom of the mountain, which washed away the schedules for the men's downhill and the women's super combined events. In Olympic events, you ski to the bottom of the hill, and the bottom was slushy. (See TIME's full coverage of Vancouver...
...Games, several countries complained that Canada limited competitors' access to the Whistler track for training, in an attempt to protect its home-turf advantage. The country has made no secret of its quest to top the medal tables at these events. The effort has even been solidified into an official winter-sport program called Own The Podium. "I think it could have been avoided," said American Steven Holcomb, the world's top bobsled driver, in an email message to TIME less than an hour before the start of the opening ceremony. "Limiting time on the fastest track in the world...