An athlete carries skis at the Laura Cross-Country Ski & Biathlon Center in Sochi on Monday. Thick fog shrouding the mountains at the Sochi Games forced organizers to postpone events. Photo: AFP

Heavy fog shrouded the peaks above Sochi, forcing Olympics ­organizers to postpone men's biathlon and snowboard events until Tuesday while ­others looked likely also to be scrapped.

Thick cloud cover high up in the mountain cluster of Rosa Khutor meant the men's biathlon 15-kilometer mass start, which had already been called off on Sunday, was pushed back to Tuesday with a 14:30 (10:30 GMT) start time.

The men's snowboard cross at ­Extreme Park was also scrubbed from the Monday schedule and will now take place at 10:30 am on Tuesday with a shortened format.

The delay to the biathlon meant Norwegian star Ole Einar Bjoerndalen had to wait longer for his bid for a record 13th Winter Olympic medal and France's Martin Fourcade will have to kick his heels as he seeks a third gold at Sochi.

"Me, I'm going back to bed. We'll see again tomorrow," tweeted Fourcade.

German competitor Konstantin Schad said the snowboard cross course was unrideable.

"We were inspecting the course ­today in the morning, but I couldn't see more than 10 meters ahead. We were not allowed to test the course, so we were just sliding along it. As it didn't freeze last night, it would just wear out the course more," he said.

"I guess the maximum speed we reach is 80 kilometers per hour. There is no way to compete in fog - it's much too dangerous."

America's Nate Holland also agreed that the decision to call off the event was correct.

"It's the Olympics. You don't want to see anything get screwed," Holland said.

"During the inspection I couldn't see anything. I thought to myself, 'That might be a Paralympics sport today, blind snowboarding.'"

At the Extreme Park, where snowboard and freestyle skiing are taking place, the weather had played havoc with training schedules, but until Monday had not affected the competition.

On Friday, warm weather forced women's ski cross and ski halfpipe training sessions to be called off while a men's aerials training session was pushed back.

With temperatures reaching 15 C at one stage,the courses had become unstable.

AFP - Global Times