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It's unlikely that the goatee beard worn on the chin of newly-crowned Olympic downhill champion Antoine Deneriaz will catch on.

Although it might just in his native alpine town of Morillon in the Haute Savoie region in the northern French Alps.

Deneriaz's hometown had prepared itself to support their local hero by decking themselves out in his colours ahead of Sunday's downhill.

Despite starting last from an elite field of 30, the 29-year-old Frenchman duly obliged, stunning the pre-race favourites, to claim France's fifth men's Olympic downhill gold and the first since Jean-Luc Cretier in 1998.

At Nagano in 1998 Cretier won, many believe, because Hermann Maier spectacularly crashed out of the race, cheating serious injury by a whisker.

But on Sunday Deneriaz unarguably staked his place among the best downhillers on the planet. What's more, his performance was hailed by most of the men he beat.

American Bode Miller, who lost his chance at a medal with a poor performance in the final part of the course, said: "A phenomenal skier ... you seen what he did today. Crushed us all."

It might have taken until now for the rest of the world to see Deneriaz's talents, but the quietly-spoken skier from the Alps has always been regarded as a warrior once he clips on his skis.

When he started representing his country in 1997, Deneriaz shared rooms with Luc Alphand, the World Cup overall champion that same year.

Deneriaz was so in awe of his countryman that he immediately nicknamed him 'the legend'. Alphand, however, was just as impressed with his roommate's talents giving him an equally flattering monicker: 'Glissman' - 'glisse' being the French word to slide.

Trained throughout his formative years by his father Alain, Deneriaz made more steady than fast progress on the World Cup circuit and achieved his first promising result by finishing fourth at Val d'Isere in 1999.

After his 12th place finish in the downhill at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, he finished eighth in the downhill at the 2003 world championships behind Michael Walchhofer, Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Bruno Kernen - two of whom he beat on Sunday to take the Olympic title.

The same season he claimed his first World Cup victories, winning at Lillehammer in Norway and then Val Gardena in Italy.

The following season Deneriaz came third in Lake Louise, Canada, and third in Lillehammer before he doubled up with victory at Val Gardena.

The 2005 season should have been a promising one for Deneriaz. He started off with a second place at Lake Louise in November 2004 but in January he crashed at Chamonix, tearing ligaments in his knee.

It led to a long period of convalescence and introspection, but on Sunday Deneriaz put his dreams and hopes back into perspective.

"I remember all the details of my crash that day, and I remember saying to someone, 'now I won't get to be the world champion'," he said in his slow, Savoyard drawl.

"But at the same time I was already thinking about the possibility of becoming the Olympic champion.

"After my operation, it was my way of dealing with the injury. I just told myself to never stop believing."

(China Daily February 14, 2006)