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Troubled Winter Games off to miserable start
The Winter Olympics suffered a miserable start when the men's skiing downhill was postponed and protests turned violent in Vancouver, but the luge went ahead despite the death of a Georgian slider.
The Winter Olympics suffered a miserable start when the men's skiing downhill was postponed and protests turned violent in Vancouver, but the luge went ahead despite the death of a Georgian slider.
A day after a dazzling ceremony opened the Games, the first gold medal was claimed by Switzerland's Simon Ammann, who won the normal hill ski jump ahead of Poland's Adam Malysz and Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer yesterday.
Dutchman Sven Kramer took out the 5,000 metre men's speedskating gold, finally capturing a title that had eluded him four years ago at Turin.
Kramer won in 6mins 14.60sec, setting an Olympic record to defeat South Korean Lee Seung-Hoon by 2.35sec with Russian Ivan Skobrev third.
Meanwhile, Slovakia's Anastasiya Kuzmina was a shock winner in the women's 7.5 km biathlon sprint, relegating favourite Magdalena Neuner of Germany into second and Frenchwoman Marie Dorin into third.
While those events took place, the unpredictable weather that has haunted organisers all week forced the blue-riband downhill, a medal event, to be put back until tomorrow.
The International Ski Federation said overnight snow and rain in the Whistler mountains followed by mild temperatures meant that skiing on the piste was out of the question.
