2010 Winter Games Competition Begins

(ATR) The International Luge Federation (FIL) says the luge event will go ahead on Saturday following the tragic death of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training run Friday.

The 21-year-old hit his head on a metal pole after losing control of his sled at the Whistler Sliding Centre, raising question marks about the safety of the track on which lugers can reach speeds of up to 150kmh.

The decision to go ahead came after an investigation by coroners and a probe by FIL, which found that the track was not unsafe but that “the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16”.

The track was reopened following a raising of the walls at the exit of curve 16 and a change in the ice profile.

FIL will resume men's training Saturday morning with two full training runs prior to the competition taking place as scheduled at 17.00.

FIL and VANOC will conduct a joint press conference on at 8.30am at the Whistler Media Center with the federation’s president, Josef Fendt, FIL secretary general Svein Romstad and Tim Gayda, VANOC vice president of sport.

Men's downhill postponed

VANOC announced early Saturday that the men's downhill that was due to open the Alpine skiing program Saturday has been postponed due to "adverse weather".

Racing was scheduled to start at Whistler Creekside at 11:45a.m. local time but VANOC said in a statement the event had been postponed to Monday. Rain and high temperatures have made the snow too slushy for racing.

A new start time for the event will be announced later Saturday.

The forecast didn't bode well for the competition to get underway today. Race organizers had hoped for a dip in temperatures but that didn't happen; warm weather conditions also led to the cancellation of both men's and women's downhill training on Friday.

Men’s Speedskating 5000m

Dutch speedskater Sven Krameris the favorite to capture potentiallythe first gold medal of theGames when he competes in the 5,000m at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Afterwinning silver the 5000m at the Turin 2006 Games, Kramer has wonmultiple world championships. Many experts expect Italian Enrico Fabristo challenge Kramer. In Turin, Fabris won gold medals in the 1500m andteam pursuit.

Ohno a Long Shot in 1,500m

Apolo AntonOhno will get his first chance to set the record for most medalscaptured by a speedskater from the U.S. when he competes in the 1,500m.

However,Ohno is considered a longshot to win the 1,500, according to Las Vegasbetting odds. South Korean skaters Jung-Su Lee and Si-Bak Sung are thefavorites to medal in the primetime event.

Jung-Su is theleader in the World Cups standings in the 1,000m and the 1,500m.Canadians will be cheering for their countryman Charles Hamelin to makethe podium.

Day One Medal Events Scheduled

Ski jumping, men’s alpine downhill, men’s speedskating 5,000m, men’s speedskating1,500m, women’s biathlon 7.5km sprint, women's mogul freestyle skiing.

Warm Winter Olympics

Vancouver and Whistler are in store for warm weather throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics, according to forecasts through the end of the month.

In Vancouver forecasts indicate an average high temperature of 10c and average low temperature of 5c during the Games. For the opening days of the Games this weekend, rain with an average high temperature of 10c and average low temperature of 6c is predicted.

Longer term, sunny skies with few clouds and a slight chance of rain are expected through Feb 21. Forecasts show an average high temperature of 9c and average low temperatures of 4c.

Whistler Outlook

Forecasts call for an average high temperature of 3c and average low temperature of 0c during the Games.

Forecasts show rain and snow for Feb. 13 and Feb. 14. Mostly sunshine with few clouds is predicted for Feb. 15 through Feb. 21. Not much variation in predicted high and low temperatures through the week.

With reporting from Mark Bisson and SamSteinberg

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