1st gold in Vancouver goes to '02 double winner

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By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer

Summary

The first gold medalist of the 2010 Winter Games is Simon Ammann, who won two golds in Salt Lake City eight years ago. He won the individual normal hill title Saturday.

Story Published: Feb 13, 2010 at 3:39 PM PST

1st gold in Vancouver goes to '02 double winner

Switzerland's Simon Ammann celebrates winning the gold medal.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The first gold medalist of the 2010 Winter Games is the guy who won two golds in Salt Lake City eight years ago.

If the name Simon Ammann doesn't ring a bell, maybe this will: He's the Swiss ski jumper who looked a lot like Harry Potter.

Now 28 - and no longer a double for the boy wizard - Ammann is again the best in the world. He won the individual normal hill title Saturday for the honor of being the first of 86 champions to be crowned at the Vancouver Games.

The first Olympic record was set by Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer in winning the 5,000 meters.

Kramer's time of 6 minutes, 14.60 seconds shaved six-hundredths of a second off Jochem Uytdehaage's record set at altitude in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Another first was expected to come Saturday night - the first gold won at home by Canada.

The host nation was shut out in Montreal at the 1976 Summer Games and in Calgary at the 1988 Winter Games. Now, moguls skiers Jenn Heil and Krsti Richards, and speedskater Charles Hamelin all have a good chance of setting off a spirited rendition of "O Canada."

Competition at the 21st Winter Olympics opened Saturday with all eyes and heavy hearts on the Whistler Sliding Center. Sliders resumed training on a repaired and slightly reconfigured track the day after a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia died following a crash on the last turn of a training run.

They also all started from a new spot farther down the track in hopes of slowing speeds and improving control.

The men have been moved to the women's start ramp, while In the speedskating, a trio of Americans failed to crack the top 10 but they dominated the next 10. Chad Hedrick finished 11th, with Shani Davis 12th and Trevor Marsicano 14th.

Men's downhill

Alpine skiers woke up Saturday to news of another day of delays.

The competition-opening men's downhill was called off about 4 a.m., with officials realizing their slopes would be too slushy. It wasn't much of a surprise because the women's super-combined, originally planned for Sunday, was postponed Friday afternoon.

The International Ski Federation is considering throwing out its schedule and starting from scratch, with a new plan featuring seven straight days of racing.

So far, the only decision is that the men's event will (hopefully) be Monday, at 10:30 a.m. PST. The women's event - featuring American sensation Lindsey Vonn - had not been rescheduled as of Saturday morning.

Vonn is about the only one pleased with all the delays because it gives her more time to recover from a bruised shin.

How much trouble has the slush caused? They've been able to finish only one of six downhill training runs.

Protesters

After several mostly civil protests Friday, members of the Olympic Resistance Network turned violent Saturday, shattering three large plate-glass windows and splattering more with red paint in the front of Hudson's Bay Company, one of the major Olympic sponsors and home to the main souvenir store.

More than 200 people wearing masks caused an estimated $10,000 in damage, said Rich Gorman, regional vice president for Hudson's Bay. Police say cars and other stores also were vandalized.

Police said seven protesters were arrested on a variety of charges, and they were being processed. One of the protesters could be charged with weapons possession. Police said the protester had a bicycle chain wrapped around his fist and was threatening passers-by.

There didn't appear to be any injuries. Afterward, guards stood in front of the broken windows, which were cordoned off with yellow police tape while Olympic tourists snapped photos. Gorman said he expected the windows to be replaced by the afternoon.

Biathlon

Slovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina won the women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint. She hit nine of 10 shots and finished in 19 minutes, 55.6 seconds on the course that had to be sprinkled with fertilizer to harden the snow that had been pelted for days with rain and sleet.

Germany's Magdalena Neuner took the silver, finishing 1.5 seconds behind Kuzmina, and Marie Dorin of France won the bronze.

The top American, Sara Studebaker, finished 45th, more than two minutes behind.

Figure skating

Johnny Weir didn't like living at the Olympic village four years ago in Turin. So why he is he staying at the Vancouver version?

Safety.

Weir said he received "very serious threats" from anti-fur activists after adding white fox fur to the left shoulder of his costume for the free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last month. He could have had bodyguards at a hotel, but it was easier to stay in the village, where security is always at a premium.

Note the anti-fur folks: Weir won't be wearing any animal skins in Vancouver.

"It was not because I was pressured to change it," he said. "I'm just switching back to another costume."

The men's short program is Tuesday, and the free skate is Thursday.

Opening ceremony ratings

If you weren't among those watching the opening ceremony Friday night, plenty of your friends probably did.

The Nielsen Co. says an estimated 32.6 million people watched Friday's opening ceremony - a 48 percent jump from the 2006 Games from Turin and approaching the 34.2 million who watched the opening in Beijing.

Only the Lillehammer games of 1994 - better known as the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan Olympics - had a larger U.S. audience for its opening ceremony.

Snowboardcross

After trucking all that snow onto Cypress Mountain, officials aren't taking any chances of messing it up.

So with rain pelting the course, snowboardcross training runs on Saturday were called off to preserve the course for races Monday and Tuesday.

Women's hockey

The reigning silver medalists from Sweden beat Switzerland 3-0 in the first match of the women's hockey tournament.

Goalie Kim Martin, the star of Sweden's semifinal upset of the U.S. in Turin, preserved the shutout with several sharp saves in the third period against a Swiss team that has risen to prominence since the last Olympics and features Northeastern University's Florence Schelling in goal.