Luca Bruno / AP

Bode Miller reacts after completing the men's downhill event on Sunday. Miller finished in fifth, failing to reach the medal podium.

Wrong.

“I knew this course suited me. A lot of terrain, big turns,” Deneriaz said. “It’s the kind of course I can be fast on.”

Deneriaz zoomed out of the gate, as if he had been shoved. He cut close to the gate flags, clipping several, kept his crouch consistently and was cleaner than anyone on the course’s jumps. Only late did he slow with two slight bobbles. It didn’t matter; his margin was monumental.

He beat Walchhofer by 0.72 seconds. If they had started together, Deneriaz would have finished roughly four SUV lengths ahead. Nobody else finished within a second of Deneriaz: Bronze medalist Bruno Kernen of Switzerland was 1.02 back.

Not since 1964, when Egon Zimmermann of Austria won by 0.74, had someone dominated the world’s best downhill skiers at a Winter Games as thoroughly as Deneriaz did.

“He absolutely came out of the gate with the pedal to the floor and skied that way the whole way,” Miller said. “He’s one of those guys who has the right skills for this hill.”

When he was done, Deneriaz yelled and lifted his ski poles, extending his index fingers to the azure sky. Kernen hugged him, and Walchhofer gave him a pat on the chest. The new Olympic champion then removed his skis and fell back in the snow with legs and arms extended, looking like a kid about to make snow angels.

He thought back to that day at Chamonix, France, in January 2005 when he crashed after a big jump. His season was over, perhaps his career. And still, while lying on a stretcher, Deneriaz managed to joke to his coach that while a world championship later that year was out of the question, he was sure he would return to win Olympic gold in 2006.

In truth, Deneriaz never did relinquish hope of a comeback.

“Even at the hospital, I told myself: ’I have to fight, because the Olympics are only every four years. I can’t give up,”’ he said. “There were some hard days. The first month was very difficult. But I kept telling myself: ’The Olympics are coming.”’