SALT LAKE CITY (Utah), Feb 10: Competitors from Europe dominated opening day medal competition at the expense of the United States at the Winter Olympics Friday.

For a moment it looked like a stocky former inline skater from California with thighs like coiled steel would change all that.

Derek Parra, 31, ranked 15th in the world, set a world record in the 5,000m men’s speed skating and led the final standings until Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage, in the penultimate pairing, took to the ice.

Uytdehaage, 25, the overall European champion, clocked 6min 14.66sec to better Parra’s mark by more than three seconds and claim the gold. Third was German Jens Boden.

Uytdehaage, included in the race in place of Gianni Romme, the Durch gold-medal winner four years ago who failed to qualify, appeared stunned by his own performance.

Italian Stefania Belmondo, 33, collected the first gold of the Games in a tight finish to the women’s 15-kilometer cross country race.

German Johann Muhlegg, who skis for Spain following a bust-up with his home federation, won the men’s 30-kilometer cross country race while Norway’s Kari Traa, the reigning world champion won the freestyle skiing’s women’s moguls title.

Traa, 28, third in the 1998 Olympics, beat rising American star Shannon Bahrke, 21. Tae Satoya, who won the gold at the Nagano Olympics four years ago, took the bronze medal.

For Belmondo the wheel turned full circle on the crisp morning snow at Soldier Hollow, a canyon deep in the Wasatch Mountains.

The teacher and forest ranger from Pietraporzio began her remarkable career of international victories in Salt Lake City in 1989 with her first World Cup win.

At Deer Valley, Norway’s Traa improved on her third place finish in the 1998 Olympics.

Hannah Hardaway, of the United States, second to Traa in the latest World Cup standings and the competitor considered most likely to deprive her of gold, finished fifth.

At Soldier Hollow, Muhlegg, a former World Cup holder who has competed for Spain since 1998, dominated the race to win well clear of Austria’s Christian Hoffmann and compatriot Mikhail Botvinov.

Muhlegg, the reigning world champion at 50 kilometres, captured his first Olympic medal with a time of 1hr 9min 28.9sec.

Meanwhile competitors were gearing up for the signature alpine skiing events at Snowbasin.

Downhill racer Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin of France produced the fastest time in the second training run ahead of Sunday’s race.