Winter Olympics:Switzerland's Didier Defago left his more fancied team mates in the shade to win the showcase men's Olympic Alpine skiing downhill. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal took the silver medal with American showman Bode Miller claiming bronze on a day when the big pre-race favourites ended up as also-rans.
With team mates Didier Cuche and Carlo Janka failing to match his time, Defago became the first Swiss to win a men's Alpine title since Pirmin Zurbriggen in Calgary in 1988, also on Canadian snow.
Canadian hope Manuel Osborne-Paradis, cheered on by a boisterous cowbell-clanking crowd in the Whistler sunshine, saw his hopes disappear on the lower part of the piste while team mate Robbie Dixon crashed out after a wild start.
There was no defending Olympic champion, with France's Antoine Deneriaz retiring since his surprise gold in Turin and world champion John Kucera of Canada absent due to injury.
The 32-year-old Defago, who completed the famed Wengen-Kitzbuehel double last season, put his gold medal down to experience.
“I am very happy. It was a very crazy run, not easy and very different to training but I knew I could do something on this course. After three Olympic Games and a lot of World Championships I think my experience made a bit of difference.”
Erik Guay was the highest placed Canadian in fifth with a time of 1:54.64.
Miller, a 2005 world champion, was eighth on the start list and took the early lead with a time of 1:54.40. He held it until Svindal overhauled him.
After Defago took the lead Osborne-Paradis was next to go and, roared on by the Canadian fans, he made a promising start. But a couple of mistakes on the lower part of the course left he well out of the reckoning with a time of 1:55.44.
Janka, with two World Cup wins to his name this season, disappointed with a time of 1:55.02 and Cuche, leading the World Cup standings coming into Olympics, lost time on the bottom half of the course and could only manage 1:54.67.
Canadian youngster Robbie Dixon fell on the top half of the course, American Marco Sullivan suffered the same fate and final Canadian hope Jan Hudec could not threaten with a time of 1:56.19.
With the course seeming to slow down the second half of the 64-strong field struggled to make any impression on the leaders.
PJ Barron, meanwhile, will become the first Irish athlete in action ant the 2010 Games when he competes in the 15km ross country event
Men's Alpine skiing downhill results
1. Didier Defago (Switzerland) 1:54.31
2. Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) 1:54.38
3. Bode Miller (USA) 1:54.40
4. Mario Scheiber (Austria) 1:54.52
5. Erik Guay (Canada) 1:54.64
6. Didier Cuche (Switzerland) 1:54.67
7. David Poisson (France) 1:54.82
8. Marco Buechel (Liechtenstein) 1:54.84
9. Klaus Kroell (Austria) 1:54.87
10. Michael Walchhofer (Austria) 1:54.88