PARK CITY ? Martin Schmitt went just far enough on his final jump to give Germany a gold medal by one-tenth of a point over Finland on Monday in team ski jumping.
The Germans finished with 974.1 points, edging Finland (974.0) in the closest team jumping competition in Olympic history.
Slovenia, appearing in its third Olympics as an independent nation, had 946.3 points and won the bronze for its first medal of the Salt Lake City Games.
Austria was fourth at 926.8 and Japan, the defending Olympic champion, was fifth at 926.0.
The young U.S. team, hoping to use its experience in Salt Lake as a springboard toward a medal in 2006, finished 11th.
Schmitt, the second-to-last jumper in the field, went 405 feet (123.5) on his second jump of the final round, but had to wait what must have seemed an eternity to see his marks from the judges.
Squatting on his skis in the stopping area, Schmitt covered his eyes before seeing he had been awarded 55 points on his final jump for 121.3 point total.
Schmitt's teammates, Sven Hannawald, Stephan Hocke and Michael Uhrmann, then mobbed him and the foursome rolled around in the snow in celebration.
Hannawald then ran over to the stands and grabbed some small German flags.
Schmitt and Hannawald were members of the German team which was beaten by the Japanese at Nagano in 1998 by 36.4 points ? a huge margin compared to this win.
Ten years ago at Albertville, Finland beat Austria by 1.5 points in the previous closest Olympic team competition.
Swiss jumping sensation Simon Ammann came up short in his bid to become the second jumper in history to win three golds. Ammann, who won the 90- and 120-meter events, thrilled a crowd of 20,000 by soaring 427 feet (130 meters) on his final jump but he and his teammates finished seventh.
Germany also won the team competition in 1994.