Andrea Fischbacher ran away with the women’s Olympic super-G crown in Whistler on Saturday as American Lindsey Vonn’s dreams of a golden double turned to bronze. The 24-year-old took full advantage of a tight and tricky course set by her own coaches to hand Austria a first Alpine skiing gold of the Games with a winning time of one minute 20.14 seconds.

Switzerland’s Didier Defago left his more fancied team-mates in the shade to win the showcase men’s Olympic Alpine skiing downhill at Whistler. The 32-year-old, who had failed to crack the top 20 in two previous Olympic downhills, blasted down the hill with a winning time of one minute 54.31 seconds to become the first Swiss winner in 22 years.

Germany’s Maria Riesch got her groove back to win the women’s super combined crown on Thursday after American Lindsey Vonn crashed and blew her chances of a second gold medal in as many days at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

An emotional Lindsey Vonn hurtled down Whistler mountain to become the first US skier to win the Olympic women’s downhill title. The 25-year-old world champion made a golden start to her “Vonncouver Games” with the stars and stripes on her ski suit, shrugging off her shin injury to beat team mate Julia Mancuso by a hefty 0.56 seconds.

Aksel Lund Svindal won Norway’s fourth gold of the Winter Olympics and his second medal in Vancouver after a near-perfect run in the men’s Super-G. The 27-year-old, who won silver in the men’s downhill on Monday, completed the icy course in one minute 30.34 seconds.

Petter Northug turned on the style to secure 4x10km relay gold for world champions Norway at the World Cup in Beitostoelen.

The 23-year old took over from Ronny Hafsaas for the final leg with more than ten seconds to make up on Germany’s Tobias Angerer and Russia’s Ilia Chernousov.

But world 50km freestyle champion Northug, who finished fourth in the men’s 15km race on Saturday, made light work of the difference and outsprinted Chernousov on the final hill to claim the win in front of a delighted home crowd.