Federica Brignone capped a fairytale comeback from severe injuries when she claimed a first career Olympic gold in front of an Italian home crowd in a super-g race which many top stars failed to finish on Thursday.
Brignone, 35, got the gold on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste in 1 minute 23.41 seconds. She won .41 of a second ahead of French skier Romane Miradoli and .52 clear of Austrian bronze medallist Cornelia Hütter.
Non finishers were led by the entire downhill podium of American Breezy Johnson, German Emma Aicher and Italian Sofia Goggia as only 26 of 43 skiers completed the race.
Johnson's mood soon brightened because her fiance, Connor Watkins, presented an engagement ring in the finish area as he proposed to her.
Brignone won overall World Cup as well as the giant slalom world and World Cup titles last season before she suffered leg fractures and severe knee injuries in a crash at the national championships in early April.
Her Olympic dream appeared over but she returned to the World Cup less than four weeks ago and came seventh in the downhill on Sunday, after being Italian flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Brignone rejoiced over a first gold after previous silver and bronze in giant slalom and combined, and it will also boost her for the giant slalom which is set for Sunday.
Asked whether she expected this after her injury struggle, Brignone said: "No, never. That's maybe why I did it, because today I was an underdog. I was an outsider, but I know what I can do with my skis.
"It's crazy. I don't think I've realized it, even with some time already. I have experience, so I know exactly what I did, but I think I will enjoy it more with my team after," Brignone said.
Her brother cried tears of joy, Italian President Sergio Mattarella delighted on the tribune and International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry had also arrived in time from the Cortina sliding centre after her meeting with Ukrainian skeleton slider Vladyslav Heraskevych.
Miradoli and veteran Hütter got their first medals, for Hütter at her fourth Games when she pipped team-mate Ariane Rädler, the team combined gold medallist, by one hundredth of a second for bronze.
"I was just shaking. The run was crazy, I was fighting like hell. It was so challenging with all the rollers and blind gates behind them," Hütter said.
"I saw the Olympic flags on the first gate. I knew it's the last time at the start gate to have a feeling like that. It was amazing but it was a little bit too much also."
Also competing, and finishing last more than seven seconds off the pace, was former US skier Sarah Schleper who has been racing for Mexico for more than a decade.
Schleper is 46 and at her seventh Games, together now with her 18-year-old son, Lasse Gaxiola, who is also competing as an alpine skier.
Others were not so lucky, with Goggia going out after being more than six-tenth ahead of Brignone at the second split.
Aicher's team combined silver medal partner Kira Weidle-Winkelmann, Czech 2018 gold medallist Ester Ledecka, Austrian 2022 silver medallist Mirjam Puchner and twice downhill world champion Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia also failed to finish.
"It wasn't an easy run but we should know where to ski with all the information and the inspection. But I had problems with the soft snow. I gave my all, I must tick it off and move on," Aicher told German broadcasters ZDF.
