Downhill racing start - Lisa

Here are other shots of the downhill course.  You can see how steep it is by looking at the volunteers below.  You can also see faint blue lines in the snow.  This is dye that is regularly sprayed onto the course to help the racers with depth perception.  This racer is probably already doing over 100 km/hr and he has only hit 3 gates!  The gate down by the volunteers is at the lip of the hill and the racers are taking about 50 ft of air as they go over it.  Racers try to take the least air possible as they are actually faster on snow, and begin to slow down in the air.  
This is the start of the olympic men's downhill.  The women's start is further down and in another area of the mountain, although they share the bottom part of the course and have the same finish.  If you watch the race on Monday, you will see this start!

All for now,

Lisa