Sawt Falasteen - First medals up for grabs at Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony culminated in the lighting of two cauldrons, one at Milan's Arch of Peace and one in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the chic resort 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Milan that is hosting the women's alpine skiing.

Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, two Italian skiing Olympic champions of the past, lit an intricate cauldron inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's knots at Milan's Arch of Peace.

In the freezing mountain air of Cortina, the duty was performed by Sofia Goggia -- an Italian former gold medallist who earlier Friday had taken part in a training run for the women's downhill event.

A number of sports started before the opening ceremony -- curling, women's ice hockey, figure skating and snowboarding.

But all eyes will be trained on the blue riband alpine skiing event -- the downhill in Bormio, where the top men will do battle.

AFP Sport picks out the highlights on the first full day of action:

-- Swiss racer Marco Odermatt is the favourite to win the men's Olympic downhill but will face a fierce challenge from his teammate and reigning world champion Franjo von Allmen.

In-form Italian Giovanni Franzoni and his veteran compatriot Dominik Paris will also likely be in the mix.

Odermatt is bidding to become the fifth Swiss skier to win the men's downhill since it was first raced in 1948.

-- China's freestyle skiing superstar Eileen Gu launches her bid for triple Olympic gold in Livigno in the slopestyle qualifying competition but will face stiff competition from defending champion Mathilde Gremaud, who is also a double world champion.

The US-born Gu, 22, was one of the faces of the 2022 Games in Beijing, winning the women's half-pipe and big air competitions and taking silver behind Switzerland's Gremaud in slopestyle.

-- China's Su Yiming defends his Olympic big air crown in the first snowboarding final at the Milan-Cortina Games but must fight off a strong Japanese contingent.

Su, 21, messed up his first run in qualifying in Livigno on Thursday but recovered strongly to finish fourth out of 30 competitors as Japan's Hiroto Ogiwara topped the leaderboard, with Italy's Ian Matteoli in second place and Japan's Kira Kimura in third.

-- US star Ilia Malinin takes to the ice to continue his nation's bid to retain the figure skating team event title when he performs in the men's singles short programme section.

The Americans are leading after the first day of action thanks to a strong performance from world champion ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates. They compete in the free dance on Saturday.

Japan are second and pushing hard after Kaori Sakamoto triumphed in the women's singles short programme.

The team competition concludes on Sunday after the free skating finals.

I.Matar--SF-PST