Great Britain’s Billy Morgan competes in the men’s Snowboard Slopestyle qualification event at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Morgan became the first competitor in action in the event, which is making its debut at the Olympics. (AFP)

Reuters/Rosa Khutor, Russia

There were thrills, spills and plenty of nerves as slopestyle snowboarding opened competition at the Sochi Olympics yesterday, and while much of the focus had been on athlete safety most came away unscathed at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. All eyes were on the course following Wednesday’s withdrawal of American Shaun White, citing safety concerns, and the frightening crash that left Norway medal hope Torstein Horgmo with a broken collarbone. But if any of the snowboarders were holding anything back on the sport’s Olympic debut they did not show it, as they launched themselves spinning through the air to impress the judges.

Australian Scotty James was left clutching his ribs after a heavy fall, and Norway’s Kjersti Buaas had to seek medical attention following a wipeout on her final run in the womens second heat. But overall, competitors were pleased with the course.

“It’s demanding, but it works. It’s not a bad course,” Norway’s Torgeir Bergrem, who slipped in both runs, told Reuters in the finish zone “They’re not the most ‘poppy’ jumps - we’re used to getting a little help with our tricks - but you have to do everything on your own here, so I guess that’s the main difference that people are struggling with.”

Bergrem said that doubts over course safety expressed earlier in the week had been dealt with after organisers trimmed the height of some of the jumps.  “It’s not dangerous at all, it’s a regular course,” he said. “The jumps are regular size, the rails are good, it’s fine.”

With slopestyle qualifying starting on yesterday, it was the first time in 30 years competition began ahead of a winter Games opening ceremony. Games officials had been racing to complete preparations in time but as Britain’s Billy Morgan took off to give slopestyle its official debut, volunteers were still hammering poles into the ground to secure crash barriers.

Morgan was so focused on his run that he was not even aware he was about to make snowboarding history. “It was pretty cool, I didn’t realise until one of the other athletes told me at the top,” he told reporters.  “I didn’t think about it until the last minute. I had fun and it was really good.”

Cheered on by a vocal crowd just a little short of capacity, the riders grabbed the sport’s Olympic opportunity with both hands, posing for photographs and signing autographs for fans. Eight automatic spots in both the men’s and women’s final were up for grabs yesterday, with the second heats delivering the day’s most breathtaking action.

Austria’s Anna Gasser showed no signs of nerves as she put in a sizzling run to score 95.50 to book her place in the final. “I was so nervous, I’ve never been that nervous in my life before. I’m straight to the finals, that’s the best thing I could wish for,” she said with a beaming smile. “It’s the Olympics, and back home it’s the first time it (slopestyle) is on TV back home, so I knew all my friends were watching.”

In the second heat of the men’s competition, Canada’s Maxence Parrot came out on top after a frenzied second run which saw the lead change hands several times.

The men’s final is for tomorrow and the women’s the following day.

Opening ceremony is a state secret

Sochi, Russia: Few details have leaked out about today’s opening ceremony for the Sochi Games, and Russian organisers want it to stay that way. Organisation chief Dmitry Chernyshenko has merely let it be known that it will be a “glittering show” using “modern technology” - but that’s about as far as it goes.

In the age of Internet, instant messaging and social media, few little birds have been singing, or indeed tweeting, about what promises to be a spectacular event in the just-built Fisht Stadium. Volunteers and thousands of extras who have taken part in the dress rehearsals have kept their promises to keep everything under wraps. The ceremony will be watched by some 40,000 spectators in the stadium and an estimated global television audience of 3 billion. President Vladimir Putin, who will declare the Games open,  has himself stayed mum - a good reason for everyone else to follow suit.

Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko can’t hide his pleasure at the secrecy. “There have not been many photos in the internet on the rehearsals,” he said. “Most people have followed our requests and that’s great,” he said.

All that’s left is to speculate, for example on whether figure skating legend Irina Rodnina will be the final torch bearer to light the cauldron as some rumours have it, or whether opera diva Anna Netrebko will be singing the Russian national anthem.

Star conductor Valery Gergiev is mooted to play a part, while the Moscow state circus, violinist Yuri Bashmet and ballerina Ulyana Lopatkina are other possible performers named in reports. The ceremony will run under the slogan Many People - One Nation and will present Russia’s transformation from a tsarist empire to a modern multi-ethnic society.

More than 40 heads of state and government are to attend the ceremony which will be held under heavy security in the secured Olympic Park hub. Four years ago the opening ceremony in Vancouver cost an 27 million euros. Here, too, the organizers have been coy. But in view of the 51 billion euros spent on the Games, the show is unlikely to be anything but an “expensive spectacle.”