(CNN) -- American skating star Apolo Anton Ohno snatched a record-breaking silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver after a final-lap crash by his South Korean rivals in the 1,500 meters race, while skier Hannah Kearney gave the United States a first gold medal in Saturday's final event.
Ohno, who won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, looked to be out of the medals as Jung-Su Lee, Si-Bak Sung and Ho-Suk Lee were poised to complete a clean sweep in the men's short-track race.
But Ho-Suk Lee was disqualified from the six-man final after cutting across his compatriots on the final turn, with Jung-Su Lee escaping the debacle to claim gold ahead of Ohno, while J.R. Celski gave the U.S. a bronze medal.
The 27-year-old Ohno earned his sixth Winter Olympics medal, making him the most successful U.S. male competitor as he overtook long-track star Eric Heiden, and leaving him equal overall with female skating legend Bonnie Blair.
Canada's second-ranked Charles Hamelin had to make do with victory in the B Final after failing to qualify for the main race.
Blog: Opening ceremony flawed but perfect
Jung-Su Lee had edged out Ohno in winning their semifinal, with his fellow Koreans coming top in theirs.
Video: Olympic luger dies in practice
Video: America's great hope
Kearney, by comparison to Ohno, won her first Olympic medal as she edged out defending champion Jennifer Heil of Canada to win gold in the final run of the ladies' freestyle moguls event, with American Shannon Bahrke taking the bronze.
Kearney, the 2005 world champion, made up for her disappointing effort four years ago as she continued the form that saw her win the last World Cup event before the Olympics in Lake Placid two weeks ago.
Her points tally of 26.63 lifted her above Heil's 25.69, which gave hosts Canada a first medal, with U.S. national champion Bahrke tallying 25.43 to add to her silver medal from Turin in 2002.
Ski-jumping
Switzerland's Simon Ammann earlier claimed the first gold medal of the 2010 Games when he won the opening men's ski-jumping event on Saturday, while Dutch skater Sven Kramer took out the first title on ice in a record time.
The 28-year-old Ammann secured his third career Olympic victory, following two golds in 2002, as he triumphed in the normal hill competition.
Ammann led after the first round and then, as the last man to leap in the final session, produced a huge jump of 108 meters at Whistler Olympic Park.
He finished with a total of 276.5 points to push Poland's Adam Malysz into the silver medal position.
"Life does not always go the way you want it to. This is why I want to cherish the moments, and I've had a lot of luck in my career and also today," Ammann, who was in 2002 nicknamed the "Harry Potter of ski-jumping" due to his likeness to J.K. Rowling's boy wizard, told reporters.
Malysz had been on top after a jump of 105 meters which, when boosted by the style judges' marks, put him ahead of bronze medal winner Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria, who had leaped 106.5 meters.
Malysz finished on a total of 269.5 points, with Schlierenzauer on 268.
Speedskating
Kramer earned the 5,000 meters speed skating title with an Olympic record time of six minutes and 14.60 seconds.
The 23-year-old world champion went one better than his silver medal at Turin 2006 as he finished 2.35 seconds ahead of South Korea's Lee Seung-Hoon.
"I started fast, but I was dying in the end. It was probably my hardest and best race ever," Kramer said.
Ivan Skobrev of Russia won the bronze medal in 6:18.05, while defending champion Chad Hendrick of the United States finished way back in 11th.
Biathlon
The first women's gold medal of the Games was claimed by Slovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina, who triumphed in the biathlon 7.5 kilometer sprint event.
She became the first athlete from the East European nation to win at a Winter Olympics, with her winning time of 19 minutes and 55.6 seconds heading off Germany's Magdalena Neuner in second place (19:57.1).
"It's a big surprise. I didn't expect to win, however I'm in good shape," Kuzmina said.
Marie Dorin of France won bronze in the event, which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, with a time of 20:06.5.
Ice Hockey
In the opening women's ice hockey match, 2006 silver medallists Sweden defeated Switzerland 3-0 at the UBC Thunderbird Arena.
Goals in each of the first three periods from Danijela Rundqvist, Tina Enstrom and Erica Uden Johansson sealed victory in the Group A match.
Hosts and defending champions Canada demolished Slovakia 18-0 in Saturday's other Group A fixture to break the record they set in defeating Italy 16-0 in 2006.
Alpine skiing
Meanwhile, the men's alpine skiing downhill competition at Whistler Creekside scheduled for Saturday has been postponed until Monday due to adverse weather.
Skiing's blue riband event was supposed to open the program, but overnight snow and rain followed by mild temperatures made conditions unsuitable.
American Bode Miller, the 2005 world champion, will be seeking to win his first Olympic gold, having claimed two silvers on home soil at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Sunday's women's super-combined and slalom skiing events have also been postponed after the competitors were unable to complete practice runs on Saturday.
American medal hope Lindsey Vonn has entered in both disciplines, among five she will be competing in, having shrugged off recent injury problems.
