Snowboard cross takes off at the Winter Olympics

Criticism of the Vancouver Winter Olympics shows no signs of abating as the transport, ticketing, facilities and weather all come under attack. But curiously the biggest hits of the Games so far have taken place on the much maligned Cypress Mountain, where the snowboard, moguls and aerial events have taken place, but which is also the scene of some of the worst organisational failures.

Rain has rendered large parts of the viewing areas unsafe and meant that thousands of spectators lost their tickets to the snowboard cross events, and much of the snow on which competitors are skiing has had to be shipped in.

However, the venue was swamped by 22,000 fans earlier in the week who turned out to see 22-year-old Alexandre Bilodeau receive his gold medal after winning the moguls competition. He was the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold on home soil - or rather slush.

And on Monday and Tuesday nights the snowboard cross competition proved a huge hit, despite the lack of spectator facilities. James Lawton in the Independent described the event as the "fastest growing sport the mountains have ever seen".

The event has been described as speedway on snow and pits four snowboarders against each other on a downhill course complete with turns and jumps. Only the top two finishers progress to the next round and the races almost invariably feature crashes and wipeouts.

It first came to the attention of the public at the Turin games of 2006, where American Lindsey Jacobellis famously blew gold in the women's event by crashing on final jump. But in 2010 it has really leapt to prominence.

In part that is down to the fact the host nation has performed so well. Canadian Mike Robertson picked up silver in the men's event behind American Seth Wescott, and Maelle Ricker won the women's event on Tuesday night for Canada.

Briton Zoe Gillings, who had an outside chance of a medal in a sport that has elements of the lottery about it, performed well but crashed out in the semi-finals. She also pulled off one of the best wipeouts of the competition in qualifying, by executing a mid-air forward roll to avoid landing on her head.

Another British medal hope, Shelley Rudman made it through the heats of the skeleton event and declared herself happy with the course which has been changed since the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili last week. ·