With an army of pink-hatted fans watching on, Josie Baff wiped away her tears of joy after doubling Australia's Olympic gold medal haul with victory in the women's snowboard cross event at Milan-Cortina.
The 23-year-old cried and jumped in delight on the podium after becoming the first Australian woman to medal in the event, her triumph coming less than 24 hours after the shock win by Cooper Woods in the moguls.
It's the first time since 2010 in Vancouver that Australia celebrated two golds in a Games, with Scotty James's silver later that Friday making it the country's most successful single day.
Baff said she was inspired by Woods's triumph, the pair former classmates in Jindabyne over the winter term and also crossing paths in junior surf life-saving.
Baff's boyfriend, Canadian Eliot Grondin, won silver in the men's snowboard cross a day earlier.
"I actually grew up doing surf lifesaving and Cooper was doing that as well so I saw him a lot down in Pambula and I know him and his family super well," Baff said.
"Seeing that yesterday definitely sparked a little fire in me and I thought if he can do it I can do it too."
Woods returned the compliment, saying Baff had "fired up" the Australian team.
"She's showed Aussie spirit and fight to get her through," the 25-year-old told AAP.
"All the Australian athletes are more hungry because of what JB has achieved."
Baff was brilliantly daring in both her semi-final and the four-racer medal race at Livigno Snow Park, as she slipped through on the inside with superb overtaking manoeuvres to win both races - crediting the skill to her background as an alpine skier.
She pipped both the racer who beat her for world championship gold three years ago, Czech star Eva Adamczykova, and reigning world champ and 2018 Olympic gold medallist, Italian Michela Moioli, in a thrilling final.
Baff said she had grown as a racer and a person since her Beijing Olympic disappointment, when her campaign ended in the opening race.
"It's very amazing - I would like to say that I can't believe it but I kind of can," she said.
"I feel like I deserve it and I put in a lot of hard work so I knew I could do it but to actually have the medal around my neck is very, very cool.
"It's definitely something that I've been working towards for a very long time and my team has been helping me achieve that every step of the way."
It was Australia's second ever snowboard cross medal after Jarryd Hughes took silver in the men's race in Pyeongchang in 2018, while Torah Bright is the only other woman to medal, winning two in the halfpipe.
Baff's father Peter, who was watching on in Livigno, coached both Bright and his daughter as a junior.
She has a crew of 35 supporters with her in Italy - the largest of any Olympian - and they wear beanies to match the colour of her racing helmet.
Baff had arrived in strong form, sitting in the world No.2 ranking, but she had a slow start to the day and finished only 17th in the seedings.
That meant she raced against new mum Adamczykova, the top seed, all the way through.
"I was definitely disappointed as I knew I was super fast on this track and it was annoying because I wanted to win the time trial, but to win the gold medal is even better so I'm super happy," said Baff, who was still battling signs of the flu.
"When I saw I had Eva in a first round it's definitely a tough first heat ... but I knew that it could also wake me up and work in my favour.
"It meant that we were racing from the first round and we were able to lock into that mindset really early on."
