VANCOUVER, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Top aerial skiers could face poor conditions, weather delays and cancellations at next month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver as the mountain scheduled to host the freestyle and snowboard events was closed Monday due to heavy rain.
Cypress Mountain, 30 minutes north of downtown Vancouver, said on its website it was closing its Alpine and Nordic areas on Monday and Tuesday "due to forecasted heavy rain early this week".
The announcement came only one day after China's Jia Zongyang and Li Nina won the men's and women's aerials, respectively, at a World Cup event in Calgary, Alberta,
With Vancouver, western Canada's largest city, experiencing a relatively mild winter characterized by heavy rainfall, about 1,219 millimeters annually, as of Monday morning the temperature atop Cypress Mountain was four degrees Celsius.
In the city, the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius at Monday noon with Environment Canada forecasting the rain to continue through Friday.
Cypress, which has been upgraded with 16.7 million Canadian dollars in improvements to its side-by-side aerials and moguls courses and 170-meter-long half-pipe, would next announce its operating status on Wednesday.
With Cypress sitting high above West Vancouver and overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the first Winter Olympic venue to do so, its location raises the possibilities for fog, rain and wind during the competitions.
The facility was one of three local skiing facilities, along with Grouse and Seymour mountains, closed on Monday due to the rain. Seymour reported it hadn't received any new snowfall in more than a week.
However, Tim Gayda, Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) vice president of sport, was confident of the Games' success, saying in a press release on Monday that "intensive operations" were in place to prepare the four outdoor Olympic competition venues, Whistler Creekside, Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler Olympic Park/Paralympic Park and Cypress Mountain, for "all weather scenarios".
He said substantial stockpiling of snow, both real and artificial, was ongoing at all venues.
"At Cypress, we started off the season with cold temperatures and were able to make substantial amounts of snow. We went through21 million gallons (79.4 million liters) of water and blanketed all of the competition courses with more than enough snow," Gayda said.
"Recently, the warm weather and rain means we're working even harder to protect the snow and we'll make more snow as soon as the temperature drops enough to do so. In the coming weeks, we'll be pushing snow down the mountain to create our courses."
Along with the Richmond Olympic Oval, venue for the speed-skating events, Cypress Mountain will likely be the scene of China's biggest triumphs at the upcoming Games beginning Feb. 12.
Since Jiangsu province native Han Xiaopeng became the first Chinese man to win Olympic gold with his victory in freestyle skiing at the 2006 Turin Games in Italy, China's aerial skiers have dominated the sport.
With Li's victory in Calgary, the reigning world champion is currently second among the women in the World Cup ranking with 196points. Compatriot Guo Xinxin, third on the weekend, leads with 240 points, while Xu Mengtao is third (189 points) and Zhang Xin fourth with 128 points.
Jia is currently second among the men with 236 World Cup ranking points, behind leader Anton Kushnir (240 points) of Belarussia. Qi Guanpu is China's another top male hope.
