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Above-freezing daytime temperatures this week won’t hamper a weekend full of events during the Badger State Games winter competition, organizers said.

Six of the eight games take place this weekend, with figure skating and billiards starting today and other events running Saturday and Sunday.

This year is the first the games — which started more than 20 years ago — will be run entirely by the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau, or CVB. The organization in October paid $15,000 to Wisconsin Sports Development Corp. for the brand for both the summer and winter games.

More than 1,100 athletes will participate in the Winter Games, CVB Executive Director Darien Schaefer said Thursday.

Jeanne Alexejun and her husband, Robert, will participate in the Nordic cross-country skiing event at Nine Mile County Forest Recreation Area, where they already ski almost every day. Jeanne Alexejun said trail conditions at Nine Mile were very good earlier in the week, and even with temperatures that climbed into the high 30s, the course still is OK.

Alexejun said she and other locals who frequently ski the area might have a leg up on the competition this week.

“It does help,” she said. “Times like this, you get to know the thinner spots.”

Only one area of Nine Mile — Trail C, which crosses Redbud Road — is expected to be too thin for racing, said Ken Krueger, superintendent of customer service for the Wausau and Marathon County Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. Parks workers spent Thursday rearranging the course by doubling a trail loop or two to keep the same length on the course while avoiding thin spots.

“There’ll probably be some slight changes to the course based on conditions, but all the events should happen,” Krueger said.

Schaefer said planning for the Winter Games has been smooth, thanks to the help of committees and volunteers who worked at the events for the past two decades.

“We’re lucky in that regard,” he said. “If this was the Summer Games, it would’ve been a much bigger challenge.”

He and other CVB staff already are planning for the 2013 Winter Games and looking for ways to coordinate Badger State with other local events that could keep participants in the Wausau area for multiple days.

And, starting Monday, CVB staff will turn their attention to the roughly 20 events in the Summer Games, the dates for which have not yet been set.