Austrians retain title

The Austrians, who had the top four-ranked jumpers in the team competition and won the event in 2006, captured the gold with a total of 1107.9 points after the eight jumps.

The Germans were in second place on 1035.8 points with the Norwegians in third on 1030.3.

Team coach Alexander Pointner said the team gold helped make up for the the individual hills, where Austria only managed two bronzes.

"Before the Games, 99 out of 100 people were our friends and after the (individual hills) we had maybe 60 out of 100 so the situation was very difficult, we can be proud of our team," he said.

"We learned a lot at these Olympics and I think we can do some things better than we did in the normal and the large hills."

The Austrians were so confident that they started celebrating even before team mate Gregor Schlierenzauer made the final jump. Schlierenzauer produced a momentous leap of 146.5 metres, easily the longest of the day.

The second he had completed a rather clumsy landing his team mates Thomas Morgenstern, Wolfgang Loitzl and Andreas Kofler ran out to congratulate him.

"It is a dream. And I have three gold medals. We have done it all together, such great friends," said Morgenstern, who won the large hill and team titles in 2006 and is only the fourth athlete to win three Olympic jumping golds.

Austria led from the first round and ended with a record Olympic points total and a record margin of victory.

The large Austrian contingent in the crowd waved the red and white national flag and burst into rowdy song.

The jumpers admitted they had been much more relaxed during the team event than for the individual hill. Morgenstern, who won the large hill in 2006, came fifth this time.

"In the individual competitions I did just a few things which were different," he said, citing problems with his positioning before take-off.

Top-ranked Swiss jumper Simon Ammann, who won both individual medals at these Games, was not taking part. Switzerland only has two jumpers in Whistler.