Snow still being ferried to Cypress

Lorry loads of snow will continue to be dumped at Vancouver's troubled Winter Olympic venue of Cypress Mountain, organizers said as they scramble to get the site ready in time.

The freestyle and snowboard venue, just to the north of Vancouver, has been plagued by a drastic lack of snow caused by the warm temperatures which have seen the city enjoying unseasonal highs of about 10C (50F).

In an effort to get the venue ready, organisers took the controversial decision to ban media from the site until Tuesday when training resumed.

"The final snow will be brought in on Tuesday and we will be ready to go," said Dave Cobb, the VANOC deputy chief executive.

Cobb said there were no regrets of not having scheduled the freestyle events at Whistler which has enjoyed high snowfalls and will be the venue for skiing, ski jumping and the sliding events.

"We could have had weather problems at Whistler and having more events there would have added to the challenges of getting people up there," he said.

"Cypress will be fantastic. When the events start, no-one will say we should have moved to Whistler."

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he had no concerns and ruled out any events being canceled or moved.

"I have no concerns whatsoever," he said.

"There is no Plan B. I assure you that there will be no events cancelled because of a lack of snow."

Competitors, who have been forced to switch training to Whistler, shrugged off the problems they were facing.

America's mogul hopeful Hannah Kearney, a former world champion, said she had put up with far more demanding conditions.

"In Italy we literally skied on a pile of snow on a dirt road so this is a big improvement," said the 23-year-old.

Source: China Daily