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A32 sports
Diamars 1 Februari 2022

Olympic athletes have 1 more thing to stress about: Weather

a 22-year-old Alpine skier it’s consistent. You do have
from California heading to them, but they’re few and far
her first Olympics. between,” said U.S. ski team
member Bryce Bennett, who
Snowfall is not in the forecast won a World Cup downhill
for the Yanqing mountain at Val Gardena, Italy, in De-
area during these Olympics. cember. “The variables make
Strong wind is expected. it interesting. When you’re
on the good side of variables,
Something else to contend you’re psyched. When you’re
with: the way light, and on the bad side, you’re (an-
therefore visibility, switches gry).”
as the sun moves across the
sky over the course of a day, In action sports — think X
creating shadows that appear Games — weather can al-
and recede. In an event like most singularly dictate the
the downhill, where speeds outcome.
can top 80 mph (130 kph),
it’s vital to be able to pick up A slate sky can dull the con-
on nuances along the course. trast between the background
and the halfpipe for vault-
“You need to see everything ing snowboarders, making
on the slope,” said Vin- it tough for riders to pick
(AP) - Mikaela Shiffrin nothing is certain when it and that exposed, by weather, cent Kriechmayr, a 30-year- out landing spots. Wind can
describes herself as “super comes to the vagaries of vari- both to affect the outcome of old from Austria who won slow down athletes as they
controlling over every- ous elements such as tem- a race and to affect the out- two golds at the 2021 Al- try to gain speed to execute
thing that’s happening in perature, wind, sunlight or come of an event,” said Mike pine world championships. tricks with 1440 degrees —
my life,” so the two-time precipitation. Day, Shiffrin’s main coach “When we have bad light, or more — of spin. Shifting
Olympic gold medalist is with the U.S. ski team. “It you have to react: ‘What’s winds are most dangerous on
not all that fond of one In outdoor events, all of those will have a big impact and has coming (toward) my skis?’ the slopestyle course, where
particular can’t-do-a- factors can, and quite often had a big impact in the past.” ... When we see the slope, we jumps are as high as 80 feet,
thing-about-it aspect of do, alter the competition and Olympians say the weather can push.” because riders can’t properly
her chosen sport, Alpine the competitors themselves. might change their prepara- calibrate the speed needed to
skiing. tion and mindset before a As it is, the quality of the execute tricks.
““On a more macro level, it contest. Once the contest be- snow tends to deteriorate as
“The weather,” she said, “can takes a lot of mental effort to gins, it might harm — or, it’s more racers head down a hill. “I feel like you’d be crazy if
literally change everything.” be ready to go out and com- also true, help — their result. you weren’t worried about
pete in an Olympic event and All of which turns this into It generally is considered bet- that kind of thing,” said free-
The 26-year-old from Colo- when ... it doesn’t happen just another source of stress ter to go earlier to avoid ruts style halfpipe skier Carly
rado is scheduled to open her ... it’s, for sure, stressful and at a one-day-every-four-years and bumps that develop. But Margulies, a 24-year-old
Beijing Olympics on Feb. 7 takes energy away from that spectacle already filled with if a headwind gives way to a from California. “But at the
as the defending champion in level. It’s unlike any other them. tailwind, say, or if a cloudy end of the day, you kind of
the giant slalom. A key word sport, in that sense, right? day turns clear and the crys- just have to push that out (of
there is “scheduled,” because, “That’s like, probably, 90% tals of the snow shift, then mind).”
as Shiffrin experienced at the “There’s just not that many of what we’re thinking advantages can, too.
2018 Pyeongchang Games, sports that are that affected, about,” said Keely Cashman, “It’s rare to have days where That’s a common sentiment.

Wolfsburg the busiest on last day of transfers in Germany

(AP) — Wolfsburg reacted games, but rather than chase ed. The 20-year-old Bello Lee Dong-jun, and defend- Michel from second-division
to its dramatic fall in for- Edin Džeko’s 66-goal mark has six appearances for the ers Marc Oliver Kempf and Paderborn.
tune with a flurry of activ- from 2007-11, the Dutch national team. Fredrik André Björkan, while
ity as the winter transfer forward switched to Burnley, a host of players departed the Also, Cologne signed
window closed in Germa- which is bottom of the Eng- Borussia Mönchengladbach club. 18-year-old defender Bright
ny on Monday. lish Premier League, for a re- allowed Denis Zakaria to join Akwo Arrey-Mbi on loan
ported fee of 14 million euros Juventus for a fee reported to City rival Union Berlin was from Bayern Munich, and
The Volkswagen-backed ($15.6 million). be between 5 to 8 million eu- forced to react to the unex- Stuttgart signed Portugal
club was one of the Bundes- ros. The Swiss midfielder’s pected sale of Kruse to Wolfs- Under-21s forward Tiago
liga’s busiest in the last days Josuha Guilavogui and Dan- contract with Gladbach was burg. Union signed Sven Tomas from Sporting Lisbon.
of transfers as it sold top iel Ginczek also left. up at the end of the season,
goal-scorer Wout Weghorst, when he could have left for
moved on other players, and Wolfsburg reportedly paid free.
brought in two more to re- 12 million euros ($13.4 mil-
place them. lion) to FC Copenhagen for Gladbach is enduring a dif-
Danish forward Jonas Wind ficult season. Germany de-
Wolfsburg, which was play- and 5 million ($5.6 million) fender Matthias Ginter is set
ing in the Champions League to high-flying league rival to leave at the end of the sea-
earlier this season, was only Union Berlin for veteran for- son.
two points above the relega- ward Max Kruse. The club
tion zone after failing to win had already signed American Hertha Berlin, which is
any of its last 11 games across winger Kevin Paredes from also struggling, announced
all competitions. Major League Soccer team French winger Kélian Nso-
D.C. United on Friday. na from second-division
The 29-year-old Weghorst SM Caen as its fourth sign-
leaves Wolfsburg as its sec- Another American, left back ing of the winter transfer
ond-highest goal scorer in George Bello, joined Arminia period. Hertha previously
the Bundesliga with 59 in 118 Bielefeld from Atlanta Unit- signed South Korean forward