Heavy snowfall in Cortina, Italy, on Thursday forced Olympic curlers to trek through snow to reach the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. Traffic in the Dolomite town had ground to a halt, prompting some teams to abandon their transport and walk.
Tabitha Peterson's United States team, en route to the semi-finals, experienced significant delays. Lead Taylor Anderson-Heide described the journey: "We had to grab a taxi and then get out halfway through and walk in the snow. But we made it in time."
Teammate Cory Thiesse noted this was not an isolated incident, recalling a similar situation during the mixed doubles competition. "In these scenarios, you just roll with the punches and expect unexpected things to happen," Thiesse stated.
Organizers adjusted the schedule, delaying the final women's round-robin games and men's semi-finals by 30 minutes to accommodate the travel disruptions.
Canada skip Rachel Homan shared her team's experience, being stuck on a bus for an hour. "It's not fun. We tried to leave early and the bus that we tried to get on had already left. We tried to get on an earlier bus, but you can't predict an hour in the snow."
Canada coach Heather Nedohin humorously commented on the situation, noting the irony of an indoor sport being delayed by snow.