Andrea Fischbacher relieved the pressure on Austria\'s under-fire \'Wunderteam\' by winning their first alpine ski gold of the Games in the women\'s Olympic super-G on Saturday.
Slovenia\'s Tina Maze won the silver, her first Olympic medal, while American speed queen Lindsey Vonn, the newly-crowned downhill champion, took the bronze.
Fischbacher\'s medal comes in the wake of huge criticism of Austria\'s ski team, which after dominating the 2006 Games in Turin with 14 of the 30 medals has so far underperformed in Whistler.
"In the speed disciplines we didn\'t have great results. We\'ve not been leading by example, but we\'ve shown that if everything goes okay you can be the best," said Fischbacher, who was still in a daze at her achievement.
"I didn\'t believe it when I saw my name on top of the leaderboard. It\'s just a dream come true.
"I liked the whole course, and the fact it was a difficult slope. You really had to fire out the start and be aggressive over the whole course."
Starting with bib number 19, Fischbacher was one of many skiers who appeared to benefit from the steadily improving light conditions on the challenging Franz\'s super-G course.
She posted a winning time of 1min 20.14sec to push Vonn, who had a technically flawless run that looked good enough for gold, off provisional top spot.
Vonn was everyone\'s favourite to claim gold in the event which combines some of the technical challenges of the slalom with the speed of the downhill.
But the 25-year-old American admitted she made the error of "stepping off the gas pedal" after she had negotiated the difficult top sections of the winding course.
"Everyone was having trouble on the top of the course and I tried to ski those difficult sections well. After that I stepped off the gas pedal, and I think that\'s where I\'ve lost the race," she said.
Vonn however admitted that winning her second medal of the Games was already more than she bargained for.
"I don\'t really think I could have done better. I came here hoping to get one medal and won the downhill gold. Getting this medal is the icing on the cake," she added.
"Any medal at the Olympics is already a success, and you have to be really proud of it."
In a day of upsets, Maze produced the race of her life to push Vonn into third, earning a silver medal in the process.
"I didn\'t believe I could be so good. When I saw I was number two, it was just amazing," said Maze.
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