The 23-year-old Mayer recovered from a slow start on the treacherous piste at Rosa Khutor to claim gold with a time of two minutes 06.23 seconds.
Italian Christof Innerhofer took silver, just six-hundredths of a second behind, with Norway's Kjetil Jansrud in the bronze medal position.
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Pre-race favorites Bode Miller of the United States and world downhill champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, finished eighth and fourth respectively.
The 36-year-old Miller, in his final Olympics, had been quickest in two training runs, but mistakes on the middle section of the course, cost him dear.
"I wanted to ski it as hard as I could and not really back off, but it requires a lot of tactics today which I didn't apply," he said.
"I feel disappointed. I skied hard and well, and that's the most important thing. It just didn't go all right."
By contrast, Mayer, who chose the perfect moment to win his first major downhill competition, was in dreamland.
"This is unbelievable. I thought maybe in a few years I could dream of this sort of achievement. It was really cool and my family will be excited," was his assessment.
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