Olympics Live: There’s finally snow for Alpine skiing

BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:

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Finally, a real sign of winter at the Winter Olympics: real snow in the mountains used for Alpine skiing.

Just a light flurry, mind you.

Still, actual flakes are dropping on the hills of the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, about 55 miles northwest of Beijing’s city center.

It is the first precipitation since ski racing competition began last week — the absence of snow is not much of a surprise, given how dry the season usually is in these parts.

All of the snow that American star Mikaela Shiffrin and others have been skiing on is manufactured.

There are no Alpine medals at stake Saturday, just a chance for Shiffrin and other women to take training runs for the downhill along the course known as The Rock. The race is scheduled for Tuesday.

More snow is in the forecast for Sunday, when the men are supposed to contest the giant slalom — and even continuing through Monday morning. A total of about 3 1/2 inches (9 centimeters) is expected at the Alpine skiing venue.

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German pairs skaters Nolan Seegert and Minerva Fabienne Hase practiced for the first time Saturday, 10 days after Seegert tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival in Beijing and was put into quarantine.

Seegert and Hase were forced to withdraw from the team competition, which meant Germany received no points for the pairs short program. That made it impossible for the longshots to advance to the medal round of the event.

The individual pairs competition begins Friday night, so they still have nearly a week to prepare.

The women’s session is later Saturday at the same practice rink near Capital Indoor Stadium. It’s unclear whether Kamila Valieva, who is at the center of a Russian doping controversy, will be on the ice again. She is awaiting a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on whether she can continue in Beijing with the women’s event beginning Tuesday.

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