Heavy snow forced more Olympic Games alpine ski races to be postponed on Tuesday but Canada's star-studded ice hockey team shone brightly with a winning start to their gold medal campaign. International Ski Federation (FIS) officials called off the men's super-combined and women's downhill training after big dumps of snow in the Whistler mountains, making the pistes unskiable.
Hockey-mad host Canada is favourite with playmaker Sidney Crosby of the NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins joined by a stellar cast, including all-time winningest NHL goaltender Martin Brodeur. They crushed Norway 8-0 with Jarome Iginla grabbing three goals and Dany Heatley two. For Russia, Washington Capitals playmaker Alex Ovechkin scored twice in an 8-2 win over Latvia while the United States did enough to beat Switzerland 3-1 despite having just three players with previous Olympic experience.
Maelle Ricker became the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold on home ground when she claimed victory in the snowboard cross. Two days after Alexandre Bilodeau's win in the men's moguls freestyle had ended the hosts' long, painful wait for an Olympic title on home soil after two barren campaigns in Montreal in 1976 and Calgary 1988, Ricker also delivered.
A day after South Korea claimed their first ever Winter Olympic gold outside short-track skating, Lee Sang-Hwa matched the feat by winning the women's 500 metres speedskating in a shock victory over hot favourite Jenny Wolf of Germany. Germany's Tatjana Huefner claimed gold in the women's luge singles, while her compatriot Magdalena Neuner took the women's 10km biathlon pursuit title. It put the Germans on top of the medal table, ahead of South Korea and Switzerland. Elsewhere, Sweden's Bjorn Ferry won the men's biathlon pursuit.