Thomas Morgenstern landed the longest jump of the day to beat roommate Andreas Kofler by the slimmest of margins.
After soaring 140m, the 19-year-old Austrian jumped in the air and celebrated even before knowing he had won gold in the large hill ski jumping event Saturday.
Morgenstern's jump was just enough to beat first-round leader and compatriot Kofler by a 10th of a point.
It was Austria's first gold on the big hill in 30 years.
"I still can't believe it," said Morgenstern, who was second after a first-round jump of 133m. "As I was sitting on the ramp, I had a feeling it was going to be a long jump."
After Kofler completed his second jump, the two Austrians embraced at the bottom of the hill, not quite sure who had won the gold.
"It was a really hard competition," said Morgenstern, who rooms with Kofler. "Luck was on my side today but I'm sorry for Kofler."
Kofler had a strong second jump of 139.5m and finished with 276.8 points for the silver.
"I didn't know how long [his] jump was," said Kofler. "But I thought it must have been pretty good because I could hear the crowd cheering."
Kofler finished 11th in the normal hill competition on Sunday and said he was pleased with Saturday's medal.
"It hurts a little bit," said Kofler.
"But I hope these aren't my last games. I really made up for what I lost on the normal hill."
Normal hill gold medalist Lars Bystoel of Norway took the bronze with 250.7 points after jumps of 127.5m and 131.5m.
Janne Ahonen of Finland, a favorite coming into the event, missed another chance for his first individual Olympic medal, finishing a disappointing ninth with 234.1 points after jumps of 123.5m and 128.5m.
Ahonen has dominated World Cup ski jumping for the past several years but still doesn't have an individual Olympic medal and said before the Turin Games that these will likely be his last Olympics.
"It was a big disappointment," said Ahonen.
"I don't know what went wrong. I made some mistakes."
Defending Olympic champion Simon Ammann of Switzerland had jumps of 120.5m and 124.5m to finish in 15th place with 218 points.
World Cup leader Jakub Janda, who took a few days off in Monte Carlo after finishing 18th in the normal hill event, finished 10th after two modest jumps.
Janda has won five times on the World Cup circuit this year but never got on track here. He came in as a favorite for a medal.
"The first jump was bad," said Janda, who had jumps of 122m and 128m. "The second was a little better but it wasn't my day today."
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