PREDAZZO, Italy, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Nordic combined athlete Ben Loomis encountered an unexpected obstacle in Thursday's Olympic team sprint when he was struck by a leaf blower as he launched from the start bar in the ski jump after an official failed to clear the equipment in time.
Leaf blowers have been used during the ski jumping competitions to clear the in-run of loose snow, with lines of officials positioned along the track to operate the equipment between jumps.
The machine caught Loomis on the shoulder and although it scuffed his uniform it did not cause any pain. The unusual incident also failed to faze Loomis, who finished in seventh place alongside teammate Niklas Malacinski, and took the collision in his stride.
"Unfortunately one of them was a little bit too late pulling theirs (leafblower) out of the way, but they're human and things can happen," he told Reuters.
Loomis was offered a chance to redo his jump, but declined in part due to worsening snow conditions which could have slowed the in-run.
"I was still pretty happy with the jump and had the opportunity to take a second jump, but decided that conditions were probably getting worse and it kind of mentally was my competition jump, so I was happy with it," he said.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund and Liz Hampton in Predazzo, Italy; Editing by Ken Ferris)
