Overview
- Unseasonably high temperatures left Milan-Cortina courses soft and partly artificial, with some athletes racing in shorts or T-shirts.
- Organizers canceled ski and snowboard training sessions and shifted start times or race days to preserve surfaces and address safety.
- Athletes reported performance distortions, including lighter riders losing momentum in mushy snow and multiple crashes in sit-ski downhill.
- The IPC said conditions have been excellent while acknowledging a long-term climate challenge for winter sport planning.
- IOC officials are studying earlier dates and a rotation of reliably cold hosts, as data show March temperatures in Cortina have risen about 3.6 C since 1956.