Dorfmeister seals golden swansong in downhill
The silver went to Martina Schild of Switzerland and the bronze to Anja Paerson of Sweden, the reigning overall World Cup champion who won the Super-G and downhill at San Sicario Fraiteve a year ago.
Dorfmeister, 32, who is already assured of the World Cup downhill title and went into the race with retirement looming, crushed the opposition on the 3,058m long course, currently the world's longest ladies' run.
The Austrian finished in 1min 56.49sec, 0.37sec ahead of Schild, granddaughter of Hedy Schulnegger, the downhill gold medalist in the 1948 Olympic Games.
Paerson was 0.64sec off the pace.
She became the first Austrian women's downhill gold medalist since Annemarie Proser-Proll's Olympic win at Lake Placid in 1980.
"It's like a dream," a weeping Dorfmeister said. "I didn't sleep for two nights because I was under so much pressure. But this morning I felt very relaxed and when I took the lift to the start I said 'Today, I do it'.
"There is a special satisfaction to beat the young ones. Plus, I'm very proud to be the first Austrian since Annemarie to win a medal in downhill," she said.
In overcast conditions that reduced visibility for the racers on the undulating course, which had been modified to include steeper banks and bigger jumps following a Super-G event last year after criticism from Dorfmeister that it was too easy, the Austrian veteran found a perfect line.
She said that the skiing in the flat light had not been as aggressive as in training.
"It was windy at the top and the jumps were long but the snow was softer so it was easier to land," she said.
Dorfmeister was aided in her race to victory by the late withdrawal of reigning world downhill champion Janica Kostelic of Croatia.
Kostelic, who is aiming to add to her triple gold medal haul from Salt Lake City, pulled out of the race because of flu-like symptoms which included an irregular heart-beat.
Dorfmeister had never won Olympic gold in any event, her only Olympic medal being the super-G silver she won at Nagano in 1998, missing out on gold by just one-hundredth of a second, and she said that thought had kept her going.
"That elusive medal was probably the thing that has kept me skiing," she said.
"But my decision to retire is final. It's going to be my last season. Maybe that's why I'm so cool. I tried to ski well. "I trained all summer for this event and I'm proud to have overcome the pressure and win this way."
She also warned that the Austrian women's alpine team "will be able to do something interesting in the next few days".
The conditions saw two of the elite top-30 racers crash out, Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein and outside medal contender Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.
But American Lindsey Kildow and Carole Montillet of France gamely took to the slopes and completed the course, without ever troubling the podium standings, after suffering spectacular crashes in Monday's training run. "I don't know if it was right for her to start the course," Dorfmeister said of Montillet, who suffered a bruised face in her spill. "But the decision comes down to the individual athlete."
Goergl, who crashed out just 10sec from the finish line, was supportive of Kildow: "The Olympic Games are every four years and you want to try everything you can to race and to do your best, so I don't see any problem. "I think Lindsey made the right decision."
Schild said she was "very surprised to make the podium".
"In every sport, especially in the Olympics, there are surprises and today I was the surprise," said Schild, whose best previous World Cup downhill finish was a fifth in St. Moritz this season.
Paerson, ranked only 11th in the World Cup downhill rankings, hailed her bronze as "amazing", and admitted that she came close to a cropper on the course. "After one jump, my skis crossed very badly. I was waiting for the crash and my head to find snow. It didn't happen but as a result I didn't carry enough speed into the flat."