Aksel Lund Svindal can etch his name among the giants of Norwegian winter sports history after claiming the gold medal in Friday's men's super-g race ahead of American Bode Miller, dpa reported.
Four days after winning silver in the men's downhill for his first Olympic medal, the three-time world champion Svindal raced down the challenging 2.076km Dave Murray piste in 1 minute 30.34 seconds.
Miller's hopes of a first gold were dashed but the 32-year-old downhill bronze medallist claimed silver, 0.28 seconds behind Svindal for the fourth medal of his career.
Fellow American Andrew Weibrecht, 24, benefited from poor showings by the favourites to grab bronze, 0.31 seconds behind Svindal and just two-hundredths ahead of Italy's Werner Heel.
It was the best ever finish for the 2006 junior worlds super-G bronze medallist Weibrecht, whose top World Cup showing was 11th - twice at the Kitzbuehel super-G.
Svindal, the defending World Cup super-G and overall champion, kept the Olympic super-G in the hands of Norway. All-time alpine Olympic medals leader Kjetil Andre Aamodt won the 2002 and 2006 super-G races.
Svindal, 27, became the fourth Norwegian to win two alpine medals at a single Games, joining the ranks of Aamodt (1992, 1994 and 2002), Lasse Kjus (1998 and 2002) and Stein Eriksen (1952).
Many of the other top challengers struggled with the course with Swiss Didier Cuche taking 10th place while Benjamin Raich and Michael Walchhofer of Austria were 14th and 21st, respectively. And local hopeful Manuel Osbourne-Paradis of Canada crashed in the upper third of the piste.
There were a few bad spills on the course but none worse than Sweden's Patrik Jaerbyn. The race was interrupted when the 40-year-old crashed and needed length treatment at the side of the course before being taken away in a ski stretcher.
There was no immediate information on his injuries.
Miller, who won two silvers in 2002, is now the fifth skier to win four Olympic medals in four different disciplines following Germany's Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway, Katja Seizinger of Germany and Anja Paerson of Sweden.