VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann won the first gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on Saturday with the fatal crash of a Georgian luger weighing heavily on his mind.

The death of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training run on Friday loomed large on the first day of medals contention, in which Netherlands and Slovakia picked up top honors and Canada waited to win a first gold in home Olympics.

VANCOUVER, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann
won the first gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on
Saturday with the fatal crash of a Georgian luger weighing
heavily on his mind.

The death of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training
run on Friday loomed large on the first day of medals
contention, in which Netherlands and Slovakia picked up top
honours and Canada waited to win a first gold in home Olympics.

VANCOUVER, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A snowboarder soared through
the Olympic rings and skiers schussed down mountains in the
unlikely confines of a stadium as Canada whipped up a wintry
wilderness for Friday’s opening of the 2010 Winter Games.

Vancouver staged the first indoor opening ceremony in the
86-year history of the Winter Games, an ironic choice for a
nation with more outdoors than almost any other place as the
world’s second largest country.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – A single snowboarder shot through the Olympic rings in a very Canadian opening salvo for the 2010 Winter Games on Friday, a feat made all the more impressive by his soaring through an indoor stadium.

Vancouver’s opening ceremony is the first ever held indoors in the 86-year history of the Winter Games — an ironic choice for a nation with more outdoors than almost anyone else as the world’s second largest country.

VANCOUVER, Feb 12 (Reuters) – A single snowboarder shot
through the Olympic rings in a very Canadian opening salvo for
the 2010 Winter Games on Friday, a feat made all the more
impressive by his soaring through an indoor stadium.

Vancouver’s opening ceremony is the first ever held indoors
in the 86-year history of the Winter Games — an ironic choice
for a nation with more outdoors than almost anyone else as the
world’s second largest country.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Injured American skier Lindsey Vonn might get her groove back in time for the Winter Games after the downhill favorite told Facebook friends on Thursday she could possibly race through the pain.

Just a day before the Olympics open, fog and snow kept skiing’s leading lady from schussing down Franz’s downhill course in Whistler in her first training run — a delay that conveniently gave her more time for her painful shin to heal.

VANCOUVER, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Injured American skier Lindsey
Vonn might get her groove back in time for the Winter Games
after the downhill favourite told Facebook friends on Thursday
she could possibly race through the pain.

Just a day before the Olympics open, fog and snow kept
skiing’s leading lady from schussing down Franz’s downhill
course in Whistler in her first training run — a delay that
conveniently gave her more time for her painful shin to heal.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – American skiing ace Lindsey Vonn suited up and donned her skis on Thursday but came no closer to clearing up the biggest doubt of these Winter Olympic Games on the eve of their opening: will she be fit to race?

Fog and snow kept the favorite from schussing down Franz’s downhill course in her first training run since announcing on Wednesday that a shin injury could thwart her quest for five medals at the Vancouver Games.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – American skiing ace Lindsey Vonn suited up and donned her skis on Thursday but came no closer to clearing up the biggest doubt of these Winter Olympic Games on the eve of their opening: will she be fit to race?

Fog and snow kept the favorite from schussing down Franz’s downhill course in her first training run since announcing on Wednesday that a shin injury could thwart her quest for five medals at the Vancouver Games.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – The traditional shroud of secrecy around Olympic opening ceremonies has some gaping holes in this age of digital downloads and social networking.

The 2010 Winter Games open on Friday night in Vancouver’s BC Place arena, the first ever indoor opening ceremony in the history of Winter Olympics, and organizers are struggling to keep a lid on preparations to wow a worldwide audience as high as 3 billion people, according to their estimates.