THE Winter Olympics kicked off in farcical conditions yesterday - with organisers forced to truck in snow for Cypress Mountain.
The home of the snowboarding and freestyle events in Vancouver has suffered from Canada's unusually warm winter this year.
And snow had to be brought in from other parts of the mountain to make conditions suitable for the competitors. That move seemed to do the trick with athletes and coaches praising the quality of the moguls and snowboard courses. with a giant finalround jump of 108 metres in the men's ski jumping.
American moguls skier Shannon Bahrke said: "The snow is nice and soft. It's easy to carve so there are no catalog printing problems." Poland's Adam Malysz took the silver and Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer claimed bronze.
But the men's downhill at Whistler was postponed until tomorrow due to slushy conditions. Dutch favourite Sven Kramer powered to the 5000m speed skating crown in an Olympic record time of six mins 14.6 secs.
And there are fears the weather could cause more chaos as forecasters predict rain and fog.
Switzerland's Simon Ammann bagged the first gold medal of the Games Anastazia Kuzmina missed only one of 10 shots and covered the course in 19 mins 55.6 secs on her way to clinch victory for Slovakia in the 7.5 km biathlon sprint.
