A virtually unknown Italian sprang to skiing stardom Tuesday by winning the only world championship event Italy has never claimed.
Patrick Staudacher caused a sensation in the men's super-G at Are, Sweden by gliding home ahead of big names Fritz Strobl of Austria and Bruno Kernen of Switzerland.
America's 'wild child' superstar Bode Miller trailed in 1.34 seconds behind, in 24th place.
The 1.90m, 100kg native of a sports-mad region that also produced the great Gustavo Thoeni appeared at first bewildered by his win.
"I can't believe it, I have to get my head round this," murmured the 26-year-old, whose career has been interrupted by eye surgery and knee injuries.
But after pause for thought, he exclaimed:
"This is a dream come true, an unforgettable day!",
Italy's previous best in the event was the legendary Alberto Tomba's fifth slot at the 1989 world championship at Vail, Nevada.
Talking to ANSA immediately after a dazed Staudacher faced the first press scrum of his career, Tomba said he had been on the phone to his old coach, now Italy's team manager Flavio Roda, while watching the event.
"I saw the way Miller was coming down and told Flavio not to worry, the gold was in our pocket".
"Patrick was great, he came down just right, light. I'm happy for him and Italy. It was high time we won another gold, the first since my brace in 1996 at Sierra Nevada," said the ski icon who won three Olympic golds and nine World Cup titles between 1988 and 1996.
Tomba, nicknamed La Bomba for his flamboyant on-and-off piste flamboyance, gave up SuperG after Vail to concentrate on his two shorter specialist events, slalom and giant slalom.
Tomba said Staudacher's win in the championship's opening event boded well for Italy's other medal hopes, men's slalomists Giorgio Rocca and Manfred Moelgg and women's all-rounders Nadia Fanchini, Denise Karbon and Karen Putzer.
Tuesday's silver-medal-winner Strobl, the 2002 Olympic downhill champ, came in a full third of a second behind the smiling blond giant from the Alto Adige-South Tyrol on the Austria border, whose previous best was fifth place in a World Cup downhill a few weeks ago.
Kernen was two thirds of a second back in third, just ahead of Herman 'Herminator' Maier of Austria.
