Winter Olympics:Lindsey Vonn lived up to the pre-Games hype and got the 'Vonncouver' bandwagon rolling this evening as the first American woman to win an Olympic Alpine skiing downhill gold medal.
The world champion, wearing the stars and stripes on her ski suit, looked totally untroubled by the shin injury that had overshadowed her arrival as she hurtled down the slopes to beat US team mate Julia Mancuso by a hefty 0.56 seconds.
Austria's Elisabeth Goergl took the bronze medal, matching the achievement of her mother Traudl Hecher who finished third in the downhill at the 1964 Innsbruck Games. She was 1.46 seconds off the pace.
Sweden's Anja Paerson was set for the silver medal when she crashed heavily off the final jump, flying 60 metres through the air before ending up face down in the snow. Vonn gasped, covered her mouth and looked away. Paerson was helped off the piste by doctors, one of several fallers.
With the sun shining and clear skies replacing the fog and snow which hit the schedule earlier in the week, Vonn blew kisses to the fans as she watched rivals fall or fail to match her time.
"It's incredible, one of the most emotional moments in my life," the American, who previously raced under her maiden name of Kildow, said of her first medal in three Olympics. "To come into the finish area and see my name and Julia's up there was amazing.
"I knew what I had to do, I knew what type of run I needed to take. I had to attack and I did that," she added. "I made it down. It's awesome, it's all I ever wanted."
Vonn had won five out of six World Cup downhills this season and had the perfect setting to show once more that she was in a class of her own.