Blame game begins after athlete’s death

There was at least tacit admission Saturday morning that the course was dangerous: the ice had been contoured to direct sleds toward the center of the track. A high wooden wall had been erected just beyond the curve where Kumaritashvili died after crashing into a support post. Signs reading “wet paint” were still stuck to the wall when the first of two training runs began. Padding was placed on exposed metal beams just before the finish line.

Olympic officials insisted that the changes were not made for safety reasons,but rather to accommodate the emotional state of Kumaritashvili’s fellow athletes — a bogus notion. “They don’t know what the emotions of the athletes are,because they don’t see the athletes on a day-to-day basis,” said Wolfgang Staudinger,the Canadian Olympic team coach. Officials said Kumaritashvili’s death was the first luge fatality since 1975. Several sliders and officials said it could not have been foreseen. But the idea that something terrible might happen here,on the fastest course in the world,was talked about publicly and feared for a year.

Ammann wins first gold of Games

Swiss ski-jumper Simon Ammann of Switzerland clinched the first gold medal of the Vancouver Olympics on Saturday while hosts Canada were still waiting for that elusive home gold. Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer set an Olympic record,the “wrong” South Korean Lee — Lee Jung-Su and not Lee Ho-Suk — claimed short track gold and surprise biathlete Anastastiya Kuzmina won a first ever Winter Games gold for Slovakia.

The men’s luge went ahead after some track modifications following the death in training the previous day of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

In the women’s moguls,American Hannah Kearney put together the run of her life to deny Jenn Heiand l Canada a first Olympic gold on home soil.

There was better news for Canada in the ice hockey rink where the team crushed Slovakia 18-0 for the biggest win in women’s ice hockey Olympic history.