It was cold and windy at the Grey Mountain biathlon facilities on Monday morning.

It was enough to delay the scheduled men's and women's sprints for the Canada Winter Games, but not enough to call off the races.

'We just barely got to go,' said Joanne Thomson, executive director for Biathlon Canada and the event's sport information officer at the Games.

The temperature cutoff for biathlon is -20 degrees. Without the winds, it was -19 C and a jury of coaches and officials decided to push the event back to 1 p.m. and shorten the route but still line the athletes up at the starting line.

'Honestly I wasn't excepting it even to happen because of the weather,' said Yukon competitor Ryan Knight, 19. 'With the wind chill it's a lot colder then -20 and -20 is supposed to be the cutoff.'

Environment Canada reported temperatures in Whitehorse as hitting -36 degrees with the wind chill on Monday.

'It was up to the technical delegate on whether or not we should race and I guess for whatever reason, we started and some of us finished and some us didn't,' said Knight. 'I was lucky enough that I finished.'

Of the 37 men who started the 10 kilometre sprint, which was adjusted to nine km, only one did not finish the race.

For the women competing in 7.5 km sprint, adjusted to six km, four of the 36 athletes did not get to the finish line.

When the temperatures get down that low it is getting into the extreme elements for the sport that combines cross country skiing with target shooting, said Thomson.

The cold makes for a slower race, she said, as skis don't glide as well on the abrasive snow, riffles can jam and athletes have to be aware of frost bite on their hands and faces.

'Hopefully they're able to put that behind them. Unfortunately when your hands are cold or your face is cold then it's probably coming into their head,' said Thomson.

'For those who are able to put it aside and just accept the fact that these are the conditions for the day, they'll be concentrating on the race and the task at hand.'

Some athletes chose to wear fleece neck warmers and balaclavas. Others opted to put white tape across their cheeks and noses to ward against frost bite.

More competitive athletes used a European mouth device that allows them warm the air on inhaling before it hits their lungs.

But however the athletes try to set themselves up to compete it's hard to get yourself psyched up when it's so cold, said Knight.

'There's another part of you telling you to quit now. Then you can be nice and warm,' he said. 'But another part of you says to keep going. I really want to finish this to prove to people I can do 10 km or nine km in this sort of temperature.'

Knight, a Canada Winter Games veteran, finished the race in 49 minutes and 25 seconds placing 26th overall.

'Racing in this sort of temperature, your legs just sort of want to shut down, so do your arms, because they all want to preserve heat to go to your main body core,' said Knight, still wrapped in a blanket long after coming into the stadium.

He said by the time he was half way through his second lap of the three lap race, his legs were starting to seize.

He went into the Games hoping to rank in the top 10, but he said if the cold continues and the races keep going too, he'll be adjusting his goals.

'Now I'll just be happy for the 15 km race if I can finish in a reasonable time and not get pulled out,' he said. 'I'm still hoping for the top half of the group.'

Jodi Gustafson, 16, is competing in her first winter Games and said she is trying to look at the experience as a learning opportunity and relax despite the harsh weather.

'I was just trying to focus on myself and try to block everything else around me,' she said. 'When the temperatures are this cold you've got to look at it with a positive attitude, or else I don't know what you'd do out there.'

Gustafson finished her race in 36 minutes and 53 seconds, placing her in the event's 19th spot.

'It was cold and slow,' said Gustafson, who put on three layers of clothing before suiting up in the Yukon's blue and black spandex uniform. 'But it was great for me. It felt really good. I just have a lot of energy.'

Gustafson hit three of her targets while shooting prone and two while standing, ending up having to ski five 150 metre penalty loops.

It was better then Knight managed to do.

'I can't hit a damn thing today and the only thing that's going anywhere for me is that the course is actually getting longer for me, because I keep missing,' he said.

Knight missed all 10 of his shots and ended up skiing an extra kilometre and a half in penalty laps.

'It brings you down quite a bit,' he said. 'I'm quite pissed off at myself. I'm not happy about it.'

Volunteers and medics on the course were told to watch the biathletes carefully for signs of frost bite and hypothermia.

Many athletes collapsed from exhaustion when they arrived at the finish line. Volunteers threw blankets over them while others were rushed to the medical tent.

Knight was escorted to the tent after he arrived. He said he was just out of it by the time he reached the finish and officials were concerned he might be showing signs of hypothermia.

Checked over, he was allowed to go back to the athletes trailers in good health.

Officials said there were no reported cases of hypothermia after the race, but there were a lot of really cold athletes coming in and some starting signs of frost bite.

In the men's Albertan Tyson Smith took gold after completing the course in 32 minutes and 45 seconds.

Yannick Alexandre Letailleur, also of Alberta, received silver for his finishing time of 33 minutes and 20 seconds.

Maxime Leboeuf of Quebec won the bronze for his 34 minute and three second race.

For the women, it was Rosanna Crawford of Alberta who won gold, completing the route in 24 minutes and 28 seconds.

British Columbian Jessica Sedlock was the silver medalist for her 25 minute and 29 second sprint.

Claude Godbout took home the bronze for Quebec after finishing in a time of 25 minutes and 37 seconds.

Yukoner Jeremiah Kitchen did not compete in the event.

Kitchen currently has a chest infection and is on antibiotics. His doctor recommend he not take part in yesterday's event while the cold temperatures persisted.

Next up for the biathletes are the 15-km men's individual race and 12.5-km women's individual event.

They were scheduled to start at 10 a.m. today, but have now been postponed to 1 p.m., due to the cold temperature.

Weather reports indicate a high of -20 C for Whitehorse today, with a windchill of -32 C.