Giuliano Razzoli gave Italy its first gold medal of the Vancouver Games with victory in the men's slalom race.
Razzoli, making his Olympics debut, led after the first leg and clinched gold with a combined time of one minute 39.32 seconds to become the first Italian man to win an alpine medal since Alberto Tomba in 1994.
"It's a dream because I was on this medal for a long time and I worked a long time, training a lot for this day. Now I'm here with a gold medal, it's incredible."
Croatia's Ivica Kostelic took the silver - his second of the Games - 0.16 seconds back and the bronze went to Sweden's Andre Myhrer, who was 0.44 seconds adrift.
Bode Miller straddled the fifth gate in foggy conditions on the Dave Murray course and therefore failed to become the first man to win four Alpine medals in the same Olympics.
Austria's Benjamin Raich, the defending champion, had to settle for fourth.
Myhrer reached the podium after posting the best second-leg time - 0.46 faster than any rival - after being 10th in the morning.
Switzerland claimed the bronze medal in the men's curling, beating Sweden 5-4 in a play-off at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
The Swiss, skipped by Markus Eggler, trailed 4-3 going into the final end.
But Eggler scored with two stones to snatch victory from the Swedes.
There was a gold medal for Pole Justyna Kowalczyk in cross country skiing's ladies 30km mass start.
Kowalczyk posted a time of one hour 30 minutes and 33.7 seconds. Norway's Marit Bjoergen took the silver 0.3 seconds adrift while the bronze went to Finn Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.