The Italian women claimed two medals in a single alpine skiing event for the first time in Olympic history, as Daniela Ceccarelli skied to gold and Karen Putzer claimed bronze in the women's super G on Sunday.

"In the World Cup I always ran close to the podium area, but never a victory. So therefore for me, today, it was certainly a big surprise," Ceccarelli said. "Even though while I was coming down, I realized I was doing well. I must say I felt very well today, even before starting.

"I had done inspection of the course and the course looked like the course in St. Moritz where I placed second in the super G. It was technical, very technical. It was more like a giant slalom course, and this encouraged me a lot, because this is what I like, a more technical course."

Skiing out of the ninth start position, Ceccarelli won in a time of 1 minute, 13.59 seconds. Putzer, the second starter, finished in 1:13.86.

The technical course set also worked to the advantage of Croatian slalom specialist Janica Kostelic, who added her second medal of the 2002 Games by winning the silver in 1:13.64. Kostelic won her nation's first ever Olympic medal when she won the combined event three days before.

"I could really relax after my gold medal. (After a medal) you are really relaxed, you don't think about anything else. You just ski," Kostelic said. "I guess the run was okay, but I thought when I was skiing down that I was going really slow, and that I was having a bad run. I was a little out of the line. I didn't want to look on the board because I was scared I had a bad run. I thought I was the worst. I was really surprised when I saw I got the second place."

The heavily favored super G racers all were edged off the podium. Austria's Alexandra Meissnitzer, the 1999 overall World Cup champion, finished 4th, just .36 of a second from gold. Defending Olympic super G champ Hilda Gerg of Germany was 5th and current World Cup discipline leader Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria finished 6th.

Olympic downhill winner Carole Montillet of France was 7th. Combined silver medalist Renate Goetschl of Austria finished 8th.

"It's hard work to get to come to the Olympics," Goetschl said. "This is a disappointment for the Austrian team. It is difficult to be Olympic champions. Everyone works so hard for us. Yes, there is a lot of pressure, but we're at a good age to handle it."

"The Austrian women had no luck at the Olympics," added Dorfmeister.

The American women suffered similar misfortune as the home team could do no better than Kirsten Clark's 14th-place time of 1:15.13.

Jonna Mendes was 16th and Kathleen Monahan was 17th. Caroline Lalive fell midway through the race and failed to finish.

"In the super G, you have to chance everything you have trying to take a tight line," Clark said. "I was trying to do that today, trying to be the fastest. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't."

— Scott Willoughby, MountainZone.com Correspondent