TURIN, Italy (AP):
ONE BID for a five-gold Winter Olympics was shattered yesterday on the first day of competition. Another stayed on track - the long track.
Chad Hedrick, who swapped inline skates for speedskates only four years ago, won the men's 5,000 metres.
He has four more races at the Lingotto speedskating track and wants four more golds to equal Eric Heiden's 26-year-old record of five gold medals in one games.
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen's chance of five golds evaporated in the Alps when he missed two early targets in the 20-kilometre biathlon and finished second behind Michael Greis, who won the first gold medal of the Turin Games for Germany.
Georg Hettich made it 2-for-2 for Germany - who topped the medal table at Salt Lake City when he won the 15-kilometre Nordic combined.
Jennifer Heil got Canada's first medal of the games a gold when she won the women's moguls on the last run of the day. Heil's clean run earned 26.5 points, enough to beat defending Olympic champion Kari Traa of Norway by 0.85. Sandra Laoura of France won the bronze.
In the last training session of the men's downhill, Bode Miller was fastest at the final interval. Hermann Maier was next.
Hedrick, a brash-talking Texan who was cheered on by United states First Lady Laura Bush, skated the gruelling 12 1/2 laps in six minutes, 14.68 seconds.
The predominantly orange-clad Dutch crowd applauded him and tossed Hedrick an orange cap even though he beat second-place Dutch skater Sven Kramer. Enrico Fabris earned hosts Italy their first medal of the Games by taking bronze in 6:18.25.
Hedrick said there was more to come.
"I didn't come here to win one gold medal," he said. "You're going to see my face a lot more. ... The more fun I have, the better I perform. I'm ready to go."
Bjoerndalen started the biathlon as a strong favourite. If he had hit one of the two targets he missed, he would have taken the gold.
