The unusually warm winter has left little snow on the ground for
the upcoming World Winter University Games, but organizers said
Monday the events will be held without any great problems.
The situation was almost the opposite last year when the same
slopes hosted the Winter Olympic Games in near perfect
conditions.
At present the only slope with insufficient snow is the one used
for the snowboarding events but organizers said that they expected
to resolve this in time.
The Winter Universiade will run from January 17 to 27 and see
the participation of some 2,500 university students from sixty
countries and regions.
A total of 11 sports will be represented at the games: the
biathlon, Nordic combined, curling, ice hockey, figure skating, ski
jumping, Alpine and cross country skiing, long and short track
speed skating and snowboarding.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2007)