Hosts Canada finally had cause for celebration at the expense of the USA.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated a flawless free dance to claim gold at the Pacific Coliseum on day 11 of the Vancouver Olympics.
Leading after the first two components of the competition, Virtue and Moir's interpretation of Mahler's Symphony No 5 thrilled the home crowd and impressed the judges.
The pair were awarded 110.42 points for a total score of 221.57 to spark wild celebrations on the day after the USA had pulled off a shock victory over Canada's men's ice hockey team.
Americans Charlie White and Meryl Davies had to settle for silver while Russian pair Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin took the bronze.
Moir insisted the pair had plenty more to come. Asked about being compared to British legends Torvill and Dean, he admitted: "It's a very flattering comparison, but I don't think we have that kind of resume yet.
"We were well trained and we were ready. But to have that moment with the home crowd and with each other, and to have all that hard work pay off, is just amazing."
Virtue added: "It wasn't right away that we thought we'd come to Vancouver and compete at the Olympic Games, let alone win a medal, and let alone go for the gold medal."
There was some cheering news for Canadian ice hockey fans after their women booked a semi-final spot with a 5-0 win over Finland at Canada Hockey Place.
Cherie Piper and Haley Irwin gave Canada a 2-0 lead in the first period and Megan Agosta added a third in the second period.
Irwin's second and one for Caroline Ouelette wrapped up victory in the third.
There was a hat-trick for Monique Lamoureux as the USA thrashed Sweden 9-1 in a women's play-off for a semi-finals spot.
Switzerland beat Russia 2-1 in the fifth/sixth place play-off and China beat Slovakia 3-1 in an 8th/7th place play-off.
Gregor Schlierenzauer produced a monster 146.5m leap to give Austria gold in the men's team ski jumping competition in Whistler.
Schlierenzauer saved the best to last with his giant jump and almost lost his footing on the landing.
The 20-year-old, a double bronze medallist in individual events, went into a sitting position and almost touched down with one hand but somehow avoided any contact with the ground to ensure the jump stood.
The loss of style points for the awkward landing was not enough to prevent the Austria team, which also included Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern, from taking the gold from Germany with a record points total of 1107.9.
The Germans had to settle for silver with a total of 1035.8 while Norway claimed the bronze, posting 1030.3.
Germany struck cross country skiing gold in the ladies team sprint.
Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad posted a winning team of 18 minutes, 3.7 seconds.
Silver went to Swedish pair Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag, 0.6 seconds back with Irina Khazova and Natalia Korosteleva claiming the bronze 4.0 seconds adrift.
Norwegian pair Petter Northug and Oeystein Pettersen won the men's cross country skiing team sprint.
Northug overhauled Germany's Axel Teichman, who surged into the lead early on the final lap, just before the finish as the Norwegians completed in 19 minutes and one second.
Teichman and Tim Tscharnke won the silver for Germany with Russian pair Nikolay Morilov and Alexey Petukhov taking the bronze.
In the men's curling round robin competition Canada clinched their semi-final spot by beating the USA 7-2 and Norway also booked their place by thrashing France 9-2. In the remaining early matches Switzerland beat Sweden 7-3 and Germany edged past China 7-6.
In the evening matches Great Britain thrashed Germany 8-2 to edge towards a semi-finals spot, China beat the USA 11-5 and France edged out Denmark 6-5 after an extra end.
Canada's women curlers booked their place in the semi-finals with a 6-2 win over Sweden and their were round robin wins for Russia over China (7-4), Switzerland over Japan (10-4) and Denmark over Great Britain (9-8).
In freestyle skiing China's Jia Zongyang topped men's aerials qualifying on Cypress Mountain with a total score of 242.52.
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