TURIN, Italy (AFP) -- Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt drew on all his experience to win a third Winter Olympics super-G gold on Saturday while Croatia's Janica Kostelic defended her women's combined title for a fourth Olympic gold.

Defending champion Aamodt recaptured the title he first won 14 years ago to become the most successful Alpine skier of all time with a record haul of eight Olympic medals.

The 34-year-old Norwegian, who had been uncertain to compete because of a knee injury he picked up in his fourth place finish in the men's downhill, stunned a host of favorites with a time of 1min 30.65sec, in the race which had been restarted because of bad weather.

He pushed Austria's Hermann Maier into the silver medal position 0.13secs adrift with Switzerland's Ambrosi Hoffmann taking bronze.

"It's rare to defend an Olympic medal. With the Herminator in second place it's a pretty good feeling," said Aamodt.

"I've always fought. I had a good feeling even with the knee injury.

"The last one is always the best," he added.

Aamodt was the 2002 Olympic super-G and combined champion and he also won the super-G title in 1992.

Maier, 33, who also finished out of the medals in the downhill -- won by Frenchman Antoine Deneriaz -- picks up his first Olympic medal since his double gold haul at Nagano in 1998. "Certainly not the old Herminator," said Maier. "It could have worked but I missed the last bit of decisiveness." He added: "Old hands have a lot of patience. I showed it and Aamodt even more."

American favorite Bode Miller skied spectacularly off the course, leaving him without at medal in the downhill, combined and super-G.

Meanwhile, Kostelic added to her three Olympic golds from Salt Lake City.

The defending champion had been second after Friday's two slalom runs, but she battled back from flu to finish ahead of Austrian Marlies Schild and Sweden's Anja Paerson.

Kostelic had broken down in tears after withdrawing from the downhill on Wednesday due to a high pulse rate but this time there were tears of joy.

The downhill leg had been cancelled Friday because of strong winds but the 24-hour delay failed to derail Kostelic, dubbed the 'Croatian Sensation'.

The combined race is regarded as a true test of all-around talent and hers shone through once again as she bettered Paerson's time by 0.55 sec.

Meanwhile Kati Wilhelm missed only once in the 10km pursuit to lead a German 1-2 over a minute ahead of Martina Glagow with Russia's Albina Akhatova claiming bronze at Pragelato.

It was Germany's third biathlon gold of the Games and puts them ahead of the United States and Russia in the medals table although all three have six golds.

Aamodt's gold, meanwhile, made up for the disappointment of defending champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who finished second in the men's biathlon 12.5km pursuit behind France's Vincent Defrasne.

Defrasne was 1.8sec behind Bjoerndalen going into the final 60m ascent, but managed to sneak past the five-time gold medalist on the outside of the home straight in a thrilling finish.

Russia's Evgenia Medvedeva-Abruzova sprinted to the women's 4x5km cross-country relay title ten seconds ahead of Claudia Kuenzel for Germany and Sabina Valbusa of Italy.

It gave Russia a boost after disgraced biathlete Olga Pyleva announced her retirement Saturday in the wake of this week's Olympic Games drugs shame.

Pyleva decided to quit after testing positive for the banned substance carphedon and being stripped of the silver medal she won in the women's 15km race in Turin.

Pyleva, 30, who was the first athlete to test positive at the Games, was hit with a two year ban after testing positive for carphedon which she claimed she had taken unknowingly in medication for a foot injury.