Heavy snow causes major disruption at Winter Olympics as medal event is cancelled

Heavy snowfall has significantly disrupted the Winter Olympics schedule in Livigno, Italy, leading to the cancellation of the women's snowboard slopestyle medal event and a delay in the freestyle skiing aerials qualifying round on Tuesday.

Organisers confirmed the women's slopestyle competition, initially set for Tuesday afternoon at the Livigno Snow Park, would be rescheduled for a later date.

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, the reigning Olympic gold medallist and world champion, is a strong favourite for the slopestyle final, having led the qualifiers. Japan's Murase Kokomo is expected to be a key rival.

Meanwhile, the aerials event was put on hold as officials monitored the weather conditions, hoping for a break in the snow to commence later in the day.

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Workers were seen using shovels to clear the steep jump at the Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park, with temperatures hovering around a chilly -6 Celsius.

Competitors in the women's aerials qualifying had completed their practice rounds just before the postponement was announced. The men's aerials qualifiers are still scheduled for later on Tuesday.

Aerials involves skiers launching themselves off a jump to perform acrobatic tricks before landing.

Among the medal contenders in the women's field are China's defending champion Xu Mengtao and Hanna Huskova, a Belarusian athlete competing under a neutral banner.

Heavy snow also disrupted Monday’s action at the Games as the Big Air skiing final that featured Britain’s Kirsty Muir was delayed.

Once the final got underway, it proved to be a thrilling contest that ended in more heartbreak for Muir.

After finishing fourth in last week’s slopestyle event, Muir was well-placed to secure a medal as she sat second in the standings after two runs.

However, she was unable to hang on to a podium position and had to settle for another fourth-place finish to leave Team GB stuck on three medals at the Games for now.