Swiss racer Von Allmen wins first gold of Winter Olympics

Switzerland's Franjo von Allmen claimed the first gold medal of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as he dominated the men's downhill on Saturday hours after the Games officially opened.

After a glittering ceremony in Milan and in venues across the Italian Alps on Friday, all eyes were trained on the blue riband alpine skiing event in Bormio.

In bright sunshine, reigning world champion Von Allmen hit speeds of 145km/h (90mph) to clock a winning time of 1min 51.61sec down the fearsome Stelvio course.

His Swiss teammate, pre-race favourite Marco Odermatt, could only finish fourth.

Von Allmen, 24, denied the host nation gold by finishing ahead of the Italian pair of Giovanni Franzoni, who came 0.20sec behind to win the silver medal, and Dominik Paris, who took bronze after finishing half a second back.

The opening ceremony on Friday culminated in the lighting of two cauldrons, one at Milan's Arch of Peace and one in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the chic resort 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Milan that is hosting the women's alpine skiing.

Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, two Italian skiing Olympic champions of the past, lit an intricate cauldron at Milan's Arch of Peace.

In Cortina, the lighting duty was performed by Sofia Goggia -- who was back competing on Saturday but had a bumpy ride in a training run for the women's downhill before completing the course.

Lindsey Vonn's dream of Olympic medal glory remained intact after the American ski star again defied a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament to complete her second training run in the downhill.

Vonn, 41, will go for an unlikely gold medal in Sunday's final.

- 'Fair play' -

The International Olympic Committee said it hoped for "fair play" after US Vice President JD Vance was booed at the opening ceremony.

The boos came when Vance and his wife Usha were shown on a large screen at the San Siro stadium, both applauding and waving flags as the US athletes filed past in the ceremonial parade. The US team itself was loudly applauded.

IOC communications director Mark Adams said: "I was in the stadium last night and we're largely a sports organisation and seeing the US team cheered as they were by the audience, fair play, that was fantastic," Adams added.

"In general, I would say at sporting events, we like to see fair play."

In Livigno, China's freeski superstar Eileen Gu came through a scare to reach Monday's final of the women's slopestyle as defending Olympic champion Mathilde Gremaud topped the list of qualifiers.

Double Olympic champion Gu lost her balance on the first rail during her initial run.

That put her under intense pressure, with the top 12 competitors progressing to Monday's final based on the better of their two runs.

But Gu rescued herself in her second run, scoring 75.30 to climb into second place on the leaderboard.

There were no such problems for Switzerland's Gremaud, who soared to the top of the standings after a smooth first run, posting a score of 76.68.

US star Ilia Malinin takes to the ice to continue his nation's bid to retain the figure skating team event title when he performs in the men's singles short programme section.

The Americans are leading after the first day of action thanks to a strong performance from world champion ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates. They compete in the free dance on Saturday.

Japan are second and pushing hard after Kaori Sakamoto triumphed in the women's singles short programme.

The team competition concludes on Sunday after the free skating finals.

In other highlights on the first full day of action, China's Su Yiming defends his Olympic big air crown in the first snowboarding final at the Milan-Cortina Games but must fight off a strong Japanese contingent.

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