Olympic officials "were working frantically overnight to repair and remake the Sochi halfpipe after a series of complaints by athletes, including Australia’s defending champion Torah Bright, about the poor quality of the course," according to Jacquelin Magnay of THE AUSTRALIAN. Bright "joined the chorus of riders criticising the pipe for being too narrow to be able to pull off the high-flying tricks for which they have trained." She said, “It’s brutal and all you can do is kinda laugh in there." The Olympic course designers "had been working all day on the course, delaying training for eight hours." Australian halfpipe coach Ben Alexander said, "The halfpipe has been a little challenging." The inaugural Olympic slopestyle winner, Sage Kotsenburg, said that the slopestyle course at Rosa Khutor "had problems too but noted that was partly because some riders didn’t like, or weren’t confident with, the big jumps." But Kotsenburg said the course ended up being “awesome” (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/11). The AAP's Glenn Cullen wrote several riders on the strong American team voiced "their concerns about the facility." Danny Davis, one of the favorites along with compatriot Shaun White, said, ''It's not very good. It needs a lot of work because they hired the wrong folks to do it.'' Organizers "at least appear to be addressing athlete concerns" (AAP, 2/11)
