Vancouver (AFP) – Bobby Ryan and David Backes scored unassisted goals as the United States beat Switzerland 3-1 in the opening game of one of the most anticipated hockey tournament’s in Olympic history.

Ryan Malone also scored and goaltender Ryan Miller made 14 saves for the US who have won the gold twice at the Olympic Games and both times at home (Squaw Valley 1960 and Lake Placid 1980).

“This was a good beginning,” said US coach Ron Wilson. “We are going to get better every game. This is a fairly quiet group, but quietly confident.”

Malone scored the US’s second goal of the middle period jamming home a rebound during a mad scramble in front of Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller. Another Ryan, defenceman Ryan Suter, assisted on the play.

“We got so many Ryans it is confusing,” said Wilson. “I say ‘Ryan’ and five guys turn around. I am going to have to figure out what their nicknames are.”

There are no less than six players with the name Ryan on the US roster.

It some ways Tuesday’s men’s hockey tournament opener must have felt like a home game for Team USA in front of the sold out crowd of more than 16,706 at the Canada Hockey Place arena.

The US border is just an hour’s drive from Vancouver so many in the crowd wore the red, white and blue and chanted “USA, USA, USA”.

But the majority of the spectators were decked out in the red and white of the Canadian team which is scheduled to play the second match of the day against Norway. Russia faces off against Latvia in the evening game.

“We learned a lot about our linemates and what we have to do,” forward Bobby Ryan said. “We got some chemistry going. All the goals were the result of banging away.”

The Americans are one of the youngest teams in the tournament with 16 players under the age of 26.

And perhaps some of their young stars haven’t fully grasped the magnitude of the Olympic Games just yet. On Tuesday they didn’t appear to have skipped a beat in making the transition from their National Hockey League teams to their first Olympic Games.

“They are just good players,” said US captain Jamie Lagenbrunner. “They know how to relax themselves in big games and they are excited for it.”

Anaheim Ducks forward Bobby Ryan said while he may have appeared composed on the ice that wasn’t always the case.

“I was much more nervous than any game I have played in a long time. I was a lot more jittery than I imagined,” Ryan said.

Ryan opened the scoring with an unassisted goal with just over a minute left in the first period shooting from the slot and beating Hiller up high.

The US turned up the heat in the second period peppering the Hiller with 14 shots compared to just four for the Swiss.

Backes made it 2-0 five minutes into the second, picking up a loose puck in front of his own net and charging the full length of the ice.

Roman Wick scored the only goal for the Swiss in the third period.

“In the end their cold-blooded scoring opportunities were superior to ours today,” said Swiss coach Ralph Krueger.

Vancouver (AFP) – Lee Sang-Hwa won gold in the women’s 500 metres speedskating in a shock victory over hot favourite Jenny Wolf of Germany Tuesday, giving South Korea more success on the Olympic ice.

Lee, leading after her first run, notched a combined time of 76.09sec for her two races (38.24 and 37.85), just 0.05sec ahead of Wolf. China’s Wang Beixing took the bronze in 76.63sec.

The win for the 20-year-old, who has not won a single race in this year’s World Cup, comes after South Korea claimed their first ever Winter Olympic gold outside short-track on Monday through Mo Tae-Bum in the men’s 500m.

Lee was last to go in her second run at Richmond Olympic Oval paired with Wolf, the three-time reigning world champion and world record-holder, and did just enough to hold off the German.

Lee, who turns 21 this month, was fifth at the Turin Games and third at the worlds last year. She is currently third in the World Cup standings.

The South Korean, also entered for the 1,000m, said: “The feeling has not sunk in yet. I cannot believe I have won the medal. I am very emotional and I feel like I am going to cry.

“I want to share this medal with my coach, my family and all the Korean athletes that are in the Olympics.

“Jenny Wolf is a very fast skater. But I remained calm and did my best in this race.”

Wolf said she was disappointed to miss out on gold but was nevertheless proud.

“I wanted to win gold. It was a tough race,” she said.

“Winning an Olympic medal is something you dream (of) when you are a child,” she added.

Bronze medallist Wang said: “This my first time standing on an Olympic podium. I am very glad.”

When asked about fulfilling the dream of winning a medal for China, she said: “For sure I am going to continue to pursue this.”

South Korea came into the Games with a pedigree in short-track skating but looking for their first gold outside that event.

Wolf, who missed out a medal in Turin in 2006, has dominated the sport since, winning the past four World Cups and leading the standings this year but she could not find the extra few hundredths of a second needed to realise her Olympic dream.

Underlining Asia’s strength in speed skating, six of the top ten were from the continent including Japan’s Sayuri Yoshyii in fifth place and the Chinese pair of Zhang Shuang and Jin Peiyu in eight and ninth positions.

Vancouver (AFP) – Vancouver Games organisers Tuesday hit back at stinging criticism from international media – especially in Britain – over problems the press say are plaguing the Games.

The Olympics have been blighted by weather woes that have forced delays to key events and the cancellation of thousands of tickets for snowboard and freestyle skiing due to safety issues for spectators.

Friday’s opening ceremony was overshadowed by the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, which led to criticism of track safety.

Even the location of the Olympic flame in downtown Vancouver – behind a fence – has been a source of controversy.

But organisers said they are shocked by the ferocity of the criticism and believe it is not giving a true picture of the Games.

“Yes, it shocks me a lot because our assessment is that the competitions are excellent, the athletes are very satisfied,” said Renee Smith-Valade, spokeswoman for organising committee VANOC.

“We can’t do anything about the weather, all we can do is react properly to it.

“In our view, the reactions we are getting from spectators here and on television are that the Games are excellent, that Canadians are proud and that the Games are a great success.”

She said that challenges for the hosts of Winter Games were nothing new and that organisers of the 1988 Calgary Olympics were forced to postpone dozens of events because of warm weather.

“There’s no question we’ve seen some press in Britain that we would look at and wonder which city the reporter’s reporting from,” Smith-Valade said.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s here because we’re seeing people out on the streets celebrating.”

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams praised the Games, saying the IOC was “impressed and continue to be impressed by the level of organisation. It’s been a very well-organised Games”.

“What I read in the British papers bears absolutely no relation to what I’ve been seeing in these Games,” he added, saying that previous Games had also been hit with problems, with thousands of tickets cancelled at Nagano in 1998, for example.