VANCOUVER - The 2010 Winter Games kicked off in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 spectators in true Canadian fashion.


The ceremony, which was slated to last more than two hours, began with the audience, each wearing different coloured ponchos, doing the hockey wave to create the effect of a clock ticking down.


<##IMAGE##> A video then appeared on the stadium"s giant screens, showing a snowboarder launching himself down a precipice and, seemingly, into the stadium. There, a real snowboarder shot down a ramp and through the Olympic rings, landing on the arena"s snow-covered floor.


The spectacular opening set the stage for the arrival of the key dignitaries and the Four Host First Nations - marking the fact that Canada is the first country to recognize indigenous people as partners in an Olympic Games.


In fact, it was aboriginal youth from across the country - Inuit, Metis, and the First Nations of the Prairies, the North and the East - who welcomed the athletes to the Games.


In all, more than 2,700 men and women are expected to compete in 86 medal events - breaking the record of 2,508 at the 2006 Games in Turin.


<##IMAGE##>Despite all the hand-wringing about Canada"s failure to win gold at home in two previous Olympics, the country"s athletes expect to improve upon their 24 medals at Turin - including seven gold.


Indeed, Canada"s officials say they hope to be sitting atop the medal standing at the end of the 17-day competition. While that may be optimistic, nobody expects Canada to get shut out.


Sports Illustrated, which picked Germany to finish first, predicts Canada will win 10 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze. Canwest"s sports team has suggested Canada could win as many as 12 gold.


The first of those could come as early as Saturday when Jenn Heil defends the gold medal she won in moguls at Turin.


Manuel Osborne-Paradis could also top the podium in the men’s downhill.


After seven years of planning and anticipation, the celebratory start to the Vancouver Winter Games was marred by the horrific death of an Olympic athlete Friday.


<##IMAGE##>Even as the city was gearing up for the opening ceremonies, television stations began airing shocking footage of 21-year-old luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili from Georgia crashing into a metal pole during a late-morning training run at Whistler. The International Olympic Committee confirmed that Kumaritashvili died in hospital a short time later. An investigation is underway.


"This is a very sad day," IOC president Jacques Rogge said, wiping tears from his eyes at the start of an early afternoon press conference at the Main Media Centre. "The IOC is in deep mourning.


"Here you have a young athlete who lost his life pursuing his passion. He had a dream to participate at the Olympic Games, he trained hard ,and he had this fatal accident. I have no words to say what we feel." An equally shaken John Furlong, chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, had to pause and compose himself while speaking.


"We are heart-broken beyond words to be sitting here," he said. "I am sorry to be in this position to be reporting this to you. It"s not something that I have prepared - ever thought I would need to be prepared for."


The death lent a sombre air to the evening"s celebrations before 60,500 people at B.C. Place and an estimated 3 billion television viewers around the world.


Canwest News Service

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