PYEONGCHANG 2018: The first gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics has been awarded to Sweden's Charlotte Kalla in the women's Skiathlon at Alpensia Cross Country Centre.

Finishing in just under 41 minutes, Kalla denied Sochi gold medallist Marit Bjoergen (Norway) a third successive Olympic Winter Games gold medal in Skiathlon.

The pair were joined by Krista Parmakoski of Finland who took bronze after finishing with a time of 40:55.

Men's Snowboard Slopestyle qualifications were also underway on Saturday at Phoenix Snow Park with explosive performances from Canadians Mark McMorris and Max Parrot and Norway's gold medal favourite, Marcus Kleveland.

Kleveland opened the competition before a 3000-strong crowd, dominating the first round of qualification heats with a best score of 83.71 but ultimately finishing third behind McMorris and Parrot.

Parrot currently leads after Saturday's two qualification runs, scoring 87.36 while his fellow countryman is in second with 86.83. 

McMorris, who was left with 17 broken bones, a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen after a crash in Canada last year, said that he was "stoked" to have put down a powerful run.

"It's such a good feeling. I didn't think I'd be here. I'm going to save all the magic for tomorrow (Sunday's final)," he said.

The men's Snowboard Slopestyle qualifications are scheduled for 10:00 AM (12:00PM AEDT) Sunday.

In the opening event of biathlon competition, Germany's Laura Dahlmeier shot clean to claim the women's gold medal in the 7.5km Sprint event. 

Dahlmeier finished just over 21 seconds ahead of Mater Olsbu of Norway and Veronika Votkova of the Czech Republic.

Canada and China were the best performed in the mixed doubles curling winning both of their matches with the round robin phase wrapping up tomorrow.

Sweden defeated Japan 2-1 and Switzerland dominated the Korean team in an 8-0 win in the women's ice hockey. 

David Barden
olympics.com.au