updated 3:54 a.m. ET Feb. 19, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Week One of the Winter Games was, to use the local phrase, luci e ombre — a mixed bag of light and shadow.

In Turin itself, turnout at some events was sparse and smog occasionally hid the nearby mountains from view, yet the captivating city center, with its baroque piazzas and palazzos, bustled day and night with upbeat Olympic throngs. Thousands of Italian fans sang and cheered to the not-so-bitter end of a 16-0 women’s hockey loss to Canada.

The sun-soaked mountains offered traffic jams and terrifying high-speed crashes by athletes, but also spectacular scenery and performances. The Alpine gold medals for American Ted Ligety and Frenchman Antoine Deneriaz, for example, rewarded runs that were in equal measure superb and surprising.

In sum, it was a week with a split personality, delightful or dismaying depending on one’s whereabouts and allegiances. Yet organizers had solid reasons to be pleased: The games unfolded without serious security or technical problems and with only one positive dope test — Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva — among the 2,000 athletes on hand.

An industrial center with 900,000 residents, Turin had been an unconventional choice from the start — by far the largest city to host a Winter Olympics. Though spruced up and festooned with banners, it represents the furthest departure yet from the classic small-town Olympics exemplified by Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.

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An extended binational family of Swiss and Canadians, trooping past the barricaded downtown site of the medals ceremonies, said they were enjoying themselves, but expressed mild disappointment at the urban, workaday atmosphere prevailing in much of Turin.

“There’s no snow,” said the youngest of the group, 8-year-old Yannick Brot. “If it’s the Winter Olympics, you’ve got to have snow.”

In the mountains, by contrast, there was snow on the ground and mostly clear skies, savored by raucous, whimsical crowds of Scots wearing kilts and blaring bagpipes, Swiss clanging cowbells, Americans draped in red, white and blue and Uncle Sam hats.

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Vendors hawked wild boar sausages, throat-scorching grappa brandy and thick hot chocolate in the main square of Sestriere, the Alpine skiing hub. At night, the jet-set social scene included Monaco’s Prince Albert, retired Italian ski great Alberto Tomba, unretiring American skier Bode Miller, even U.S. presidential daughter Barbara Bush.

Miller was among many stars who didn’t shine in Week One — he finished fifth in the downhill and straddled a slalom pole while leading the combined event. U.S. speedskating ace Apolo Anton Ohno botched his way out of the 1,500-meter race, and Norway’s biathlon great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen started 0-for-2 in what had been a quest for five gold medals.

Other athletes — famous and less so — were knocked out by injuries or jarred by crashes. Five-time world champion Michelle Kwan withdrew from figure skating because of a groin injury. American Lindsey Kildow and Carole Montillet-Carles of France skied gamely in the downhill just two days after gasp-inducing crashes in training. Lugers of both genders and many nations spun out of control on a track depicted as one of the most difficult ever.

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