The weather at the women’s mogul competition last night was — by all accounts — horrendous. It wasn’t just raining. It was raining sideways.

And by 7:30 p.m. when the final started, it wasn’t exactly warm. Particularly for those of us standing at the bottom. Or for the faithful fans who not only sat in the rain for hours, but hiked about a mile up the wet road first.

Twelve hours later, my gloves were still soaked. The clear trash bag that I sported kept at least part of my jacket dry.

After returning to my computer in the press tent, I read emails from friends watching the event on TV back home saying how awful the weather looked and how course workers were holding umbrellas over the heads of the competitors at the start — something I didn’t see from the bottom.

In the press conference, reporters — many of whom were dressed in jeans and street shoes — peppered the medal winners with questions about how the weather affected them. Even last fall, reporters were asking the future Olympians how they thought the weather would affect them.

But for winter sport athletes, dealing with variable weather conditions is part of the game. Kearney grew up skiing in Vermont in New Hampshire. Like most of us who grew up in northern New England, skiing in the rain is just what we do.

When asked if she was thinking about the weather before her gold-medal-winning run, Kearney responded, “I was not thinking about the weather. The rain is actually refreshing!”

After her great qualifying run, Heather McPhie also said that the rain was not an issue. “I can see great,” she said. “You can charge. It’s so much fun!”

McPhie qualified third and in the final, was having a great run until her final air. She went huge on her second jump, a back layout, and stretched so far that she couldn’t recover. She fell and ended up 18^th.

Today, so far, the sun is out at Cypress and the men’s moguls qualifier starts in 30 minutes. Word is that the course is in good shape, thanks to what’s described as a dry-ice cooling system.

At least something was “dry” on the course last night.