Japanese ski-jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki looked nothing like the Olympic silver medalist who made his presence felt in each event in Nagano.
And veteran Masahiko Harada had even more trouble in his bid for a medal on the normal-hill event at the Winter Games on Sunday.
Funaki could only manage a disappointing ninth place while Harada, who was fifth in Nagano on the K-90 hill, finished way back in 20th in the ski-jumping competition held at Utah Olympic Park.
Japanese rising star Hiroki Yamada, appearing in his first Olympic Games, meanwhile, tumbled to 33rd after failing to get beyond the first round of jumps with a dismal 88 meters.
Noriaki Kasai had even more difficulty, settling for 43rd after jumping 85 meters on the K-90 hill.
Little-known Simon Ammann of Switzerland grabbed the gold medal ahead of Germany's Sven Hannawald, winner of the prestigious Four Hills competition. World Cup leader and favorite Adam Malysz of Poland had to settle for bronze.
Ammann had monster leaps of 98 and 98.5 meters, while Hannawald jumped 97 and 99 meters and Malysz soared 98.5 and 98 meters.
The normally cool and collected Funaki, 12th in this season's World Cup rankings, got his jump right in practice, but then choked in the final.
He failed to gather speed down the ramp and timed his leap too early on his first attempt of 92 meters as he slipped well behind the leaders. He finished with a jump of 94.5 meters to sew up ninth place with a total of 243 points.
Olympic team captain Harada, appearing in his fourth Olympics, had no big jumps on Sunday. He leaped 91 meters on his first attempt and 89.5 meters on the second.