It was a busy weekend of action as the World Cup ski jumping season kicked off in Kuusamo with victory for Thomas Morgenstern. Check out all the Alpine Skiing, Biathlon and Curling news by clicking on the links under the photo.

The Austrian produced a jump of 146.5 metres in the opening round and followed it up with a leap of 137m to edge out Norwegians Bjorn Einar Romoren and Tom Hilde who were part of their country's victory in the team event on Friday.

Morgenstern's young team-mate Gregor Schlierenzauer broke the hill record with a leap of 147m but finished fourth with defending overall champion Adam Malysz of Poland down in 16th.

The cross country skiers were also in the Finnish resort and Norway's Marit Bjorgen recorded her 30th career victory and her second this season in the women's 10km.

Bjorgen, chasing her third overall World Cup title, extends her overall lead to 112 points after finishing nine seconds ahead of world champion Astrid Jacobsen who was also second in the sprint won by Slovenia's Petra Majdic.

There was more success for Norway as Johan Kjolstad beat Swedish duo Emil Jonsson and Mats Larsson in the men's sprint while Czech Lukas Bauer notched his first success in 32 months in the 15km to take the overall World Cup lead from third placed Axel Teichmann.

Germany veteran Ronny Ackermann holds the early lead in the Nordic Combined World Cup after winning the Gundersen and then finishing fourth in the sprint in Kuusamo.

His compatriot Bjorn Kircheisen won the sprint edging four-time defending overall champion Hannu Manninen by three seconds who was only 18th in the longer event.

The World Cup bobsleigh season got underway in Calgary and Germany's Olympic champion Andre Lange edged out defending World Cup champion Steve Holcomb by eight hundredths in the two-man opener.

However the American extracted revenge in the four-man by coming from behind to win by a tenth. Britain's Lee Johnston finished 13th.

Helen Upperton claimed the women's race, beating German Cathleen Martini by eight hundredths with her compatriot, defending champion Sandra Kiriasis in third. Nicola Minichiello of Britain was 11th.

Kristan Bromley, aka Dr Ice, was just four hundredths of a second shy of recording his first World Cup skeleton victory in three and a half years as the season commenced in Calgary.

Paul Boehm of Canada leaped from third after the first run to notch his maiden victory with another Brit, Adam Pengilly, in fourth.

Bath's Amy Williams took a career-best third in the women's opener as Michelle Kelly and Canadian team-mate Mellisa Hollingsworth took full advantage of home conditions to claim the top two places.

World silver medallist Daisuke Takahashi came from behind to defend the NHK Trophy figure skating in Japan, gaining a standing ovation from home fans for his dramatic free skating routine to Tchaikovski's "Romeo and Juliet", and winning a place in the Grand Prix finals in Turin in the process.

European champion Carolina Kostner of Italy was the surprise winner of the top women's prize during the four-day event as world champion Miki Ando made some disastrous errors in the free skating.

European champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany overwhelmed their competitors to win the pairs title in the last leg of the ISU Grand Prix series.

In the ice dancing section, European champion duo Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France finished ahead of Canadian pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

The speed skaters headed to Kolomna in Russia where Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic maintained her 100% record in the distance events this season by winning the 5000m while German superstar Anni Friesinger took the 1500m.

Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands claimed his second 1500m victory in three starts this season while Norway's Håvard Bøkko recorded his maiden victory in the 10000m, taking full toll of the absence of Enrico Fabris and Sven Kramer.

The Short Track skaters headed to the Olympic track in Turin where only a 500m victory by Francois-Louis Tremblay denied China and Korea a clean sweep with the latter nation winning seven of the ten races.

Eurosport