Vancouver:
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 on Saturday.
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 on Monday.
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.
"The piste has been badly affected these last two days by the mild temperatures and the himud conditions with snow and rain," said the FIS race director Gunter Hujara.
The women's super-combined, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was postponed until Thursday, with practice runs not possible.
Problem-plagued Cypress Mountain also suffered more setbacks when work at the snowboard cross course caused training to be cancelled and rain threatened the women's moguls medal battle, due to be run later Saturday.
Cypress, to the north of Vancouver, has been badly affected by unseasonal, warm temperatures which prompted a round-the-clock operation to bring in snow from higher elevations to make the venue ready.
Luge training took place in Whistler despite safety concerns after Georgia's Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed when he left the track and smashed into a metal pole in training on Friday.
The decision to go ahead followed investigations by the regional coroner, police, and the International Luge Federation (FIL) which concluded there was no indication the tragedy was caused by track deficiencies.
However, the men are now racing lower down from the women's start, which should result in a 10-percent reduction in the maximum speed, while the walls have been raised at the scene of the accident.
FIL president Josef Fendt faced down claims that the track could cause more deaths.
"We did not expect these kinds of speeds on this track, but we have seen that the track has been safe," he said.
On the streets of Vancouver, around 100 masked anti-Olympic protestors clashed with riot police, smashing windows, kicking cars and throwing objects.
At least two officers were injured and seven demonstrators arrested.
"The demonstration involved a number of anarchists, some of whom dress all in black and employ a tactic, called Black Bloc," police said in a statement.
"This included a loosely organized group of thugs from central Canada known to attach themselves to any cause, travel to any event that attracts media coverage and promote anarchy wherever they go."
The violence followed small-scale protests on Friday during the torch relay and outside the stadium hosting the opening ceremony.
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 on Saturday.
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 on Monday.
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.
"The piste has been badly affected these last two days by the mild temperatures and the himud conditions with snow and rain," said the FIS race director Gunter Hujara.
The women's super-combined, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was postponed until Thursday, with practice runs not possible.
Problem-plagued Cypress Mountain also suffered more setbacks when work at the snowboard cross course caused training to be cancelled and rain threatened the women's moguls medal battle, due to be run later Saturday.
Cypress, to the north of Vancouver, has been badly affected by unseasonal, warm temperatures which prompted a round-the-clock operation to bring in snow from higher elevations to make the venue ready.
Luge training took place in Whistler despite safety concerns after Georgia's Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed when he left the track and smashed into a metal pole in training on Friday.
The decision to go ahead followed investigations by the regional coroner, police, and the International Luge Federation (FIL) which concluded there was no indication the tragedy was caused by track deficiencies.
However, the men are now racing lower down from the women's start, which should result in a 10-percent reduction in the maximum speed, while the walls have been raised at the scene of the accident.
FIL president Josef Fendt faced down claims that the track could cause more deaths.
"We did not expect these kinds of speeds on this track, but we have seen that the track has been safe," he said.
On the streets of Vancouver, around 100 masked anti-Olympic protestors clashed with riot police, smashing windows, kicking cars and throwing objects.
At least two officers were injured and seven demonstrators arrested.
"The demonstration involved a number of anarchists, some of whom dress all in black and employ a tactic, called Black Bloc," police said in a statement.
"This included a loosely organized group of thugs from central Canada known to attach themselves to any cause, travel to any event that attracts media coverage and promote anarchy wherever they go."
The violence followed small-scale protests on Friday during the torch relay and outside the stadium hosting the opening ceremony.
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