“If you want snow, schedule a downhill race” (skiing adage)

Downhill skiing races are canceled if there are snowy conditions. A modern proverb is that if one wants snow, then one should schedule a downhill race.
 
“If you want it to snow at your area, schedule a downhill,” said World Cup alpine ski racer Cindy Nelson in 1989. “There is a saying—‘Schedule a downhill and it’ll snow,’” World Cup alpine ski racer Doug Lewis observed in 1992. It’s not known who originated the saying.
 
     
Google Books
September 1989, Skiing magazine, “World Cup Journal: Quote/Unquote” by Burt Sims, pg. 284, col. 1:
Cindy Nelson, after a storm forced a delay in the men’s downhill: “If you want it to snow at your area, schedule a downhill.”
     
AP News Archive
SNOWFALL HITS WINTER OLYMPICS VENUES
LARRY MCSHANE , Associated Press
Feb. 4, 1992 4:19 PM ET
ALBERTVILLE, FRANCE ALBERTVILLE, France (AP) _ The first major snowfall since a December blizzard hit the Olympic region Tuesday, dumping up to a foot of snow and raising fears of an Alpine gridlock four days before the start of the Games.
(...)
‘Schedule a downhill, and it snows. That’s the way it works,’’ said former U.S. ski team member Doug Lewis, who is in Val d’Isere to help film this year’s skiing events.
 
Baltimore (MD) Sun
Olympic planning whitewashed as foot of snow falls in France
February 05, 1992 | By Jere Longman | Jere Longman,Knight-Ridder News Service
VAL D’ISERE, France—The worst thing that could happen to a Winter Olympics happened yesterday.
 
Winter.
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“There is a saying—‘Schedule a downhill and it’ll snow,’” said Doug Lewis, a U.S. Olympian in ‘84 and ‘88, who will test this Olympic downhill course as a forerunner.
 
Washington (DC) Post
Stormy Weather Wipes Out Opening Races
By ERICA BULMAN
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 4, 2007; 2:47 PM
ARE, Sweden—Stormy weather prevented the start of the Alpine Skiing World Championships on Sunday for the second day in a row.
 
Like the men’s race a day before, the women’s super-G was postponed because of heavy snowfall, strong wind and warm temperatures that made the lower part of the course dangerously soft.
 
“There is a Swedish saying that if you want snow, schedule a downhill race. But if you really want a lot of snow schedule a world championship,” organizing committee race director Jan-Erik Hedstrom said.
 
Twitter
Doug Haney
‏@doughaney
Schedule a downhill and it will snow. Final training run in St. Moritz canceled today due to heavy overnight snow.
6:24 AM - 31 Jan 2014
 
Twitter
Katie Ryan
‏@Katie_Ryan1
FIS: “Let’s schedule a #Downhill race.” ... Mother Nature: “Hahaha… how bad you want it?”
2:16 AM - 16 Jan 2015
   
Aspen (CO) Daily News Online
McKennis in the hunt for downhill slot
by Madeleine Osberger
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BEAVER CREEK — Schedule a downhill, or a downhill training run, and get ready for some snow. It’s one of those near-guarantees in ski racing and sure enough, this is how the opening day of the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships unfolded.
 
Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME)
On skiing: Lots of snow great for resorts, not for racing
Dave Irons, Skiing columnist
Local Sports | Saturday, February 7, 2015
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We heard the old saying many times that day and over the week of the championships, “If you want snow, schedule a downhill.”