Beaver Creek World Cup downhill cancelled amid high winds

Officials had postponed the race hoping the wind would calm down enough to let the race go ahead, but finally opted to call off the race that was the fourth scheduled in four days.

"Due to the strong winds today, the jury together with the OC (organizing committee), unfortunately have had to cancel today's Men's Downhill at the @bcworldcup," the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in a statement.

"The next Men's Downhill race is scheduled to take place in Val Gardena on the 18th of December."

The jam-packed schedule had resulted from make-up races added when two of three races at Lake Louise last weekend were cancelled because of excessive snow.

Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde departs Colorado as the week's big winner, notching a super-G and a downhill victory to cement his return from a ruptured right knee ligament suffered last January.

But the Norwegian team suffered a blow in a season that will be highlighted by February's Beijing Winter Olympics when veteran Kjetil Jansrud sustained knee ligament damage in a spectacular crash in Friday's super-G won by his teammate.

The men depart North America with Marco Odermatt topping the overall standings with 346 points. The Swiss won the first super-G at Beaver Creek on Thursday and leads Austrian Matthias Mayer by 36 points in the overall hunt.