索契不夠冷，愁壞冬奧會組織者

Olympic Officials Scramble to Counter Warm Weather

索契不夠冷，愁壞冬奧會組織者

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — With the Winter Olympics melting under a heat wave, the effects could be seen Thursday from the coast of Sochi, where spectators were spotted sunbathing, to the mountains high above the city, where cross-country skiers raced in sleeveless jerseys. The balmy weather has forced changes in competition schedules, sent workers scrambling to harden the slushy snow and made Olympians reconsider what to wear for their warm-weather winter sports.

俄羅斯卡拉斯拉雅波利亞納——隨著熱浪襲來，此次冬季奧運會(Winter Olympics)也在慢慢消融。周四，從索契海岸上曬日光浴的觀眾，再到高山上身著無袖上衣進行越野滑雪比賽的滑雪者，這種影響隨處可見。由于天氣溫暖，人們不得不對比賽安排做出改變，工作人員也在手忙腳亂地讓松軟的融雪變堅硬，還讓奧運會選手們開始重新考慮他們應該穿著什么來在這種溫暖的氣候中進行冬季比賽。

“You sit outside in a T-shirt and shorts — that’s not winter,” said Christoph Sumann of the Austrian biathlon team. “You don’t know what to wear for the race.” He settled on the thinnest T-shirt he could find. A teammate, he said, wore nothing beneath his racing uniform.

“你穿著T恤和短褲坐在外面，這可不是冬季，”澳大利亞冬季兩項隊的成員克里斯托弗·休曼(Christoph Sumann)說。“你根本不知道應該穿什么去比賽。”他穿了自己能找到的最薄的T恤。他說，有個隊友在賽服下面什么都沒穿。

“It’s absolutely too warm for me,” he said. “I’m a winter guy.”

“這對于我來說真的太暖和了，”他說。“我是個喜歡冬季的人。”

So far, these Olympics have not been a good fit for those who like their Winter Games wintry. It has not snowed since the Olympics began last week, and most days have brought bright sunshine and springlike temperatures.

截至目前，那些希望冬季奧運會在寒冷氣候中進行的人，并沒有很好地適應這些奧運賽事。自上周奧運會開始以來，這里一直沒有下雪，而且大部分時候都陽光燦爛，溫度近似春季。

“I’ve never seen it this warm at a Winter Games,” said Max Cobb, a senior official with the International Biathlon Union, who has attended every Winter Olympics since 1992. Cobb was in constant radio contact with the crew spreading salt, meant to turn the slush into water, then back into ice.

“我從未見過這么溫暖的冬奧會，”國際冬季兩項聯(lián)盟(International Biathlon Union)的高級官員馬克斯·科布(Max Cobb)說。他參加了自1992年以來的每屆奧運會。他一直在與負責撒鹽的團隊保持聯(lián)系。撒鹽是為了把融雪變成水，然后再變?yōu)楸?/p>

“If we were competing now, the women would probably be in shorts and bibs and jogging bras,” Cobb said.

科布說，“如果我們現(xiàn)在比賽，女運動員可能要穿短褲、背心和慢跑胸衣。”

Weather for the 2014 Games has been a concern since the International Olympic Committee made Sochi the first host of the Olympics in a subtropical climate. The southern Russian city sits on the Black Sea, some of its promenades lined by palm trees. Sochi hardly counts as a winter wonderland in a nation all too familiar with freezing temperatures: It was minus-25 degrees Fahrenheit, about minus-32 Celsius, in Siberia on Thursday.

索契是首個舉辦奧運會的亞熱帶氣候城市，自從國際奧委會(International Olympic Committee)選定索契之后，人們便一直對2014年冬奧會的天氣狀況感到擔心。這座位于俄羅斯南部的城市坐落在黑海旁，有些道路旁還種著棕櫚樹。俄羅斯很多地方的氣溫都極低——周四西伯利亞的氣溫為華氏零下25度，約攝氏零下32度——相比之下，索契根本算不上是冰雪世界。

Organizers have long dismissed concerns about the warm weather. After a warm spell a year ago disrupted test events, they stockpiled huge mounds of snow, stashed it in shady spots and covered it with insulating material to help most of it last through the summer.

一直以來，組織者都對這種擔心不屑一顧。一年前，在資格賽受到溫暖的氣候干擾后，他們便儲存了大量的雪，他們把這些雪存放在陰涼的地方，用隔熱材料蓋起來，讓大多數(shù)雪都能夠撐過夏季。

Now, there seems to be enough snow, thanks in large part to a heavy winter storm and one of the world’s largest snow-making operations. The problem is the condition of the snow. Puddles of slush would complicate nearly all the outdoor events, jeopardizing contests that Olympians have spent years training for.

如今，多虧一場大的冬季暴風雪和世界上最大的制雪行動，這里的雪似乎夠了。問題是這些雪的狀態(tài)。融雪形成的坑將會使所有戶外賽事的狀況復雜化，從而阻礙競賽。為了參賽，奧運選手們可是花費了多年時間去訓練的。

Organizers kicked into high gear Thursday to prevent that. In the middle of the night, machines covered the biathlon course with salt. Then, after the sun came up, a crew of 15 workers walked the four-kilometer cross-country course, carrying buckets of large-grained salt. The workers sprinkled the salt onto the tracks in the manner of people feeding birds.

周四，組織者開始花大力氣來阻止前述現(xiàn)象的發(fā)生。午夜時分，他們用機器在冬季兩項的賽道上鋪鹽。太陽出來后，一個由15名工作人員組成的團隊便抬著一桶桶大顆粒的鹽，走在長4公里的越野賽道上。他們把鹽往賽道上灑的樣子就像在喂鳥。

The men’s super combined Alpine ski race scheduled for Friday was moved to 10 a.m. local time from 11 a.m. to counter midday temperatures that were expected to approach the mid-50s Fahrenheit, around 13 Celsius. Afternoon temperatures at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, home of ski jumping and Nordic combined, reached 63 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday. The competition manager there said the site had a deep base, partly because trucks had been sent into the mountains last month to fetch fresh snow.

為了避過正午的高溫，計劃于周五舉行的男子全能高山滑雪賽從當?shù)貢r間早上11點被提前到了10點舉行，預計正午的氣溫將接近50華氏度，即大約13攝氏度。周四下午，跳臺滑雪和北歐兩項的比賽場館羅斯基高奇跳臺中心(RusSki Gorki Jumping Center)的氣溫達到了63華氏度。比賽場館的管理人員說，該中心基部的雪堆得相當深，部分原因是他們于上個月派卡車到山里拉來了新雪。

At the jumping center, and every other mountain site, salt was being applied liberally.

跳臺中心及其他所有山地場館區(qū)都撒了大量的鹽。

“It would be really good if temperatures could dip down overnight, to get those perfect icy conditions,” said Jenny Wiedeke, communications manager for the F.I.S., the international ski federation that oversees skiing and snowboarding. “But this is something we battle as an outdoor sport.”

主管滑雪和單板滑雪賽事的國際滑雪聯(lián)盟(International Ski Federation，簡稱FIS)傳媒主管詹妮·維德克(Jenny Wiedeke)說，“如果氣溫能在夜間下降，獲得那種完美的冰況，那就太好了。不過，作為一項戶外運動，這是滑雪必須應對的局面。”

While blue skies and snow-capped peaks provided enticing backdrops, some of the sites seemed better suited for beach volleyball than for winter sports. Men without shirts walked toward the biathlon stadium, where officials had traded their parkas for T-shirts. In a particularly ominous sign, mosquitoes were spotted.

藍天和白雪覆蓋的山峰提供了誘人的背景，然而其中的一些場館似乎更適合打沙灘排球，而不是進行冬季運動。赤膊的男子朝冬季兩項場館走去，那里的管理人員把風雪大衣?lián)Q成了T恤。一個尤為不祥的跡象是，人們看到了蚊子。

At the sun-splashed site of the cross-country skiing events, where temperatures rose toward 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 15 Celsius, on Thursday, women raced in sleeveless jerseys. Fans wore T-shirts, and skiers slogged through the soft snow.

周四，在陽光普照的越野滑雪賽場地，氣溫在向60華氏度、即約15攝氏度攀升，女選手穿著無袖運動服比賽。粉絲們穿著T恤，滑雪選手艱難地從軟雪上滑過。

Afternoon temperatures in the upper 50s Fahrenheit were expected through Saturday across the mountain sites, including the bottom of the skiing site and the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, where snowboarding and freestyle skiing are taking place.

預計從今天下午到周六，所有山地場館區(qū)的溫度都將超過50華氏度，其中包括了滑雪場的最低點和羅薩胡特高山滑雪中心(Rosa Khutor Extreme Park)，后一處是單板滑雪賽和自由式滑雪賽的比賽場館。

Night will bring little relief, as temperatures are forecast to stay well above freezing. Cooler weather, but with temperatures still above freezing, has been predicted beginning Sunday, but rain is possible.

夜晚也無法緩解多少壓力，因為預計氣溫會穩(wěn)穩(wěn)地維持在零度以上。預計自本周日始會有降溫，但氣溫依然會高于零度，且有可能會下雨。

Weather worries were exacerbated by the 2010 Vancouver Games, which faced an unusual dearth of snow and record high temperatures. There was so little snow at the site for snowboarding that more had to be hauled in.

2010年的溫哥華冬奧會(Vancouver Games)加劇了人們對天氣情況的擔憂，那次冬奧會遭遇了雪量異乎尋常匱乏的情況和創(chuàng)紀錄的高溫。單板滑雪賽場館的雪少到主辦方不得不運更多的雪進來。

Sochi has not yet resorted to such drastic measures, but if the snow continues to melt, it could prove disastrous for events like the cross-country portions of the biathlon. Picture skiing through oatmeal.

索契尚未采取如此極端的措施，不過如果雪繼續(xù)融化，可能會對冬季兩項里的越野比賽等賽事造成災難性的影響。想想在燕麥粥里滑雪的景象吧。

“It really affects a lot of things,” said Tim Burke of the United States biathlon team. He travels with 25 pairs of skis. On Thursday, for the first time, he wore his most extreme warm-weather skis. Instead of the usual layers of long underwear, he wore only a T-shirt under his uniform.

冬季兩項美國隊成員蒂姆·伯克(Tim Burke)說，“這真的影響了許多比賽。”他此行帶了25副滑雪板。周四，他第一次穿上了應對最溫暖天氣的那副滑雪板。他沒有像往常那樣穿一層又一層的長內衣，而是在比賽服下穿了一件T恤。

Many spectators at the biathlon stadium left their coats unzipped, if they wore them at all. Gloves were stuffed in pockets, heads uncovered. Victor Medvedev and his wife, Yelena Tikhonov, were visiting from Chelyabinsk, in Siberia.

冬季兩項場館里的許多觀眾都拉開了外套拉鏈，如果他們還穿著外套的話。他們的手裸露在外，手套被塞進了口袋。維克托·梅德韋杰夫 (Victor Medvedev)和妻子葉連娜·吉洪諾夫(Yelena Tikhonov)從西伯利亞的車里雅賓斯克來到了比賽現(xiàn)場。

“Of course we didn’t expect anything like this, so we had to leave our winter boots and thermal underwear in the hotel,” Medvedev said. “We also had heavier hats.”

梅德韋杰夫說，“我們顯然根本沒有料到，情況會是這樣，所以，我們不得不把冬靴和保暖內衣留在酒店里。我們還帶了更厚的帽子。”

Tikhonov added, “It’s much better than minus-18.”

吉洪諾夫補充說，“這比零下18度好多了。”