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Canceling a ski race because it’s too cold is like stopping a swim meet because it’s too wet.

The repeated cancellations in Anchorage this week of the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Championships show the folly of applying warm-weather thinking to this part of the world.

There is a temperature on the plus side of Absolute Zero at which races should be canceled, but a toasty five below is far too warm to claim “too cold.”

The fault lies not with the Anchorage organizers, but with the pooh-bahs of the international ski world, who raise the specter of frostbite, hypothermia, asthma and everything except the common cold in defending an arbitrary worldwide temperature cutoff.

There are two documents on the Web site of the International Ski Federation that address the alleged horrors of cold weather, but the federation folderol fails to document how harm might come to skiers.

The research is lacking, but the “medical committee educational series” goes so far as to say that even four below is too cold for distance races and that children under 14 should not be allowed to race if the temperature is colder than 7 above.

The 400 top skiers in Anchorage could have raced every day this week at 10 below or 20 below without a problem, simply by wearing an extra layer or two.

It would be better for skiers of all abilities, elite and otherwise, to recognize the wisdom in the response Alaska missionary Hudson Stuck gave to those who asked how he handled winter: “A person of good sense does not endure the cold. He protects himself from it.”

Hypothermia can be life-threatening at temperatures far above or below freezing, depending upon the level of preparation a person makes to deal with the conditions. The temperature does not define the threat.

In promoting skiing as a warm-weather sport, the skiing authorities prevent coaches, athletes and the public from learning how to deal with the cold.

The danger of “exercise-induced asthma” has been mentioned numerous times this week as justification for the “too cold to ski” business.

Kenneth Rundell, the director of respiratory research at Marywood University in Scranton, calls the asthma claim a myth. He said it’s not the cold, it’s the dryness of the air that creates respiratory problems for some.

“Cold air just happens not to hold much water and is quite dry,” he said, quoted in a New York Times article a year ago.

“People with these problem should see a respiratory specialist and take medication when they exercise in dry air,” Dr. Rundell said. And, he added, “you might want to use a balaclava, so your exhaled breath can moisten the air you breathe.”

I was glad to read a blog item from one of the top U.S. cross-country skiers who found it silly to stop the Anchorage races because it was chilly.

“There is something really screwy about a world where untrained citizens and high school students in local leagues can race when it is 15 below but trained athletes can’t,” skier Justin Freeman of New Hampshire wrote on his blog.

“I am sick of the ‘too cold, too steep, too high, too long’ coddling in this country (and to a lesser extent this sport).”

He was hoping that someone would “blow on the thermometer” to raise the official temperature, but there was no targeted blast of warm air.

Fairbanksan John Estle, the former national team coach, recalls the words of a Soviet official at the 1984 Olympics when the cancellation or postponement of the men's 30K race was under discussion because of a blizzard: “Skiing is not a tropical sport.”

The Chest Medicine Fairbanks Distance Race series continues Sunday with a 20-kilometer race, presented by Raven Cross Country. There is no hard and fast temperature cutoff, but the Fairbanks forecast is for a high of 15 below, which sounds tropical.