By Lisa Richwine and Alvise Armellini
LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Heavy snow scrambled the Winter Olympics schedule in the Italian town of Livigno on Tuesday as organisers cancelled the women's snowboard slopestyle medal event and delayed the start of the qualifying round in freestyle skiing aerials.
Aerials was placed on hold as officials monitored the weather to see if the snow would clear enough to begin the event later in the day. Workers used shovels to try to clear the steep jump that
skiers were preparing to ride down at the Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park. Temperatures hovered at a chilly -6 Celsius.
Across town, organisers cancelled the women's slopestyle competition scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Livigno Snow Park and said they would move it to another day.
New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, the defending Olympic gold medallist and reigning world champion, is favourite for the slopestyle final after leading the qualifiers. One of her main rivals is expected to be Japan's Murase Kokomo.
Competitors in the women's aerials qualifying completed practice rounds just before organisers said they had to postpone the start of the event.
The men's aerials qualifiers are scheduled for later on Tuesday.
Aerials features skiers launching themselves off a jump and performing an acrobatic trick before landing.
In the women's field, medal contenders include defending champion Xu Mengtao of China and Hanna Huskova, a Belarusian who is competing as a neutral athlete.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by Ed Osmond)
