Vonn crashes as Lysacek conquers Olympic gold

Games organisers, meanwhile, came under fresh criticism over the Whistler Sliding Track.

Vonn was hot favourite to win a second gold medal after claiming the downhill title on Wednesday but a fall in the slalom leg ended her dream run, with Riesch ecstatic at coming out on top.

"That was incredible," said Riesch on Thursday after the race that combines downhill and slalom.

"I was much more calm and had more confidence today. I was really nervous yesterday. I knew it was a course to attack. It was attack and nothing else." Riesch: Germany\'s comeback kid

American Julia Mancuso won the silver and Anja Paerson of Sweden took the bronze.

"It didn\'t go my way today, but that\'s racing," said Vonn.

Reigning American world champion Lysacek dethroned defending Olympic champion Plushenko on the ice rink, with Daisuke Takahashi giving Japan their first ever Olympic men\'s podium finish by taking bronze.

Lysacek finished just 1.31 points ahead of Plushenko to break an 18-year Russian domination in the event.

"I think my programme had a lot of difficulty. tried hard to make it look as easy as possible. We\'re doing our job if it looks easy," said the 24-year-old American.

With the Vancouver Games in their seventh day, there was more grief for organisers with the head of the Georgian Olympic Committee claiming inadequate safety measures were to blame for the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Giorgi Natsvlishvili made the comments ahead of the funeral on Saturday of the 21-year-old, who was killed in a training run on the eve of the opening ceremony.

"Safety standards were not properly observed," he told journalists in comments shown on Rustavi-2 television.

The bobsleigh is being held on the same track and there were eight crashes during training on Wednesday night.

The International Luge Federation announced a major inquiry into the track once the Olympics end, as International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams again defended it.

"In terms of safety and security we are very happy with the safety record of the track. It\'s a good track," he said. Related Article: Coe defends Vancouver after British criticism

In other medal events, Canada\'s world champion Christine Nesbitt took gold in the women\'s 1,000-metres speedskating, holding off a powerful Dutch challenge from Annette Gerritsen and Laurine van Riessen.

Torah Bright won Australia\'s first gold of the Games in women\'s halfpipe, ending long-standing US domination of the sport with Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark having to settle for the minor medals.

"I was standing up there, and was like \'there\'s nothing I can do now, whatever will be, will be\'," said Bright, recalling how she felt going into her last run.

An emotional Tora Berger claimed the women\'s 15km individual biathlon title for Norway, ahead of Kazakhstan\'s Elena Khrustaleva and Darya Domracheva of Belarus.

The United States tops the medal table with six gold, ahead of Germany on four, with South Korea, Switzerland, Norway and Canada each having three.

Ice hockey continued with Canada\'s team of superstar National Hockey League players given a big wake-up call by Switzerland with only a Sidney Crosby shootout winner saving their blushes in a 3-2 win. Related Article: Canada survives Swiss scare

Fellow gold medal favourites Russia lost 2-1 to Slovakia in another shootout while the United States ripped Norway 6-1.

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