Lydia Lassila has won Australia's second gold medal at the Vancouver Games, triumphing in the women's aerials final at Cypress Mountain on Thursday (AEDT).
Lassila was placed second after the opening round of jumps after she landed an extremely difficult jump to net 106.25 points.
Her second jump wasn't as difficult but it was near perfection as she scored 108.49 for a combined total of 214.74.
"This is the ultimate for me, it's something that I dreamt about since I was a little girl, then as a gymnast and then as an aerialist," Lassila said.
"Olympic gold. It was always one thing to go to an Olympics but I always knew that I had something in me - that I could do this. This is just closure to a lifetime of dedication and hard work for this very moment."
"After the first jump I was so pleased with that, to just land it. That was the focus for tonight – hit my takeoff, hit my landings."
"When I landed my second jump, that's me you know. I gave it everything tonight and I've given everything my whole career. To land that jump and nail it, I'd done everything I could and whatever happened after that – whatever. But I was super self-satisfied with that moment."
China's Zu Mengtao had the chance to take the gold with the last jump of the final, but she crash-landed to fall out of contention.
There was still some joy for China with Li Nina (207.23) and Guo Xinxin (205.22) claimed bronze and silver respectively.
Lassila's gold takes Australia's medal count to three, which makes the 2010 Games the most successful Olympics by an Australian team, surpassing the two gold won in 2002.
Veteran Jacqui Cooper put in a great performance to finish fifth with her two jumps netting a combined score of 194.29.
"I did everything I could to put myself in a position to win a medal tonight and I'm proud of the way I competed," said Cooper, whose previous best Olympic result is eighth.
"I landed my jumps in semi-finals, I landed my jumps in finals. I've never landed my jumps in an Olympic final before, so yay for me."
"It's an Olympic final and people do amazing things at the Olympics. It was a big final, big jumps and I'm just so happy, obviously for Lydia winning. But there were girls doing triples and Nina even took a risk. It was great to see huge DD thrown and landed."
The other Australian in the field, Elizabeth Gardner, had a disappointing final, failing to land either of her jumps as she finished in 12th place.