Chad Hedrick reacts to news of his victory

Two Germans, an American skater and a Canadian skier have captured the first gold medals of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Italy.

Chad Hedrick of the United States won the men's 5,000-meters long track speed skating gold in 6:14.68.

Sven Kramer of the Netherlands took the silver medal (6:16.40). Italian Enrico Fabris gave his countrymen something to celebrate by taking the bronze (6:18.25).

Earlier, Germany's Michael Greis was the surprise winner in the men's 20-kilometer biathlon, finishing in 54:23 with one shooting miss.

Norway's Ole Einar Bjorndalen won the silver, 16 seconds back, with compatriot Halvard Hanevold, taking the bronze (53:31.9). Both Norwegians had two shooting misses.

In the Nordic combined event, Georg Hettich of Germany took gold ahead of Austrian Felix Gottwald while Norwegian Magnus Moan took the bronze medal.

In the women's moguls freestyle skiing, Canadian Jennifer Heil won the gold medal with a total of 26.5 points. Norway's Kari Traa, the 2002 champion, finished with the silver while Sandra Laoura of France won the bronze.

In women's ice hockey, Sweden scored a 3-1 win over Russia. Finland defeated Germany, 3-0. The U.S. team beat Switzerland. 6-0, and Canada crushed host country, Italy, 16-0.

The pairs figure skating short program was Saturday with two-time world champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin scoring 68.64 points. The free skate is Monday night. It was the first Olympic skating program under a new scoring system implemented after the 2002 competition was tainted by a bribery scandal involving one of the judges.