Sandford, 10th four years ago in Torino, rocketed around the Whistler Sliding Centre in 3:32.59 for his four runs, 2.86 seconds slower than eventual winner Jon Montgomery.
The Canadian, backed by a raucous crowd, won the race by 0.07sec from Latvian Martins Dukurs who led the competition until the home straight of his final run.
Despite it being the best effort thus far by a New Zealand athlete in Vancouver, Sandford said he didn't meet his expectations.
"One of the goals was to get a 52 second run which I did, but I had a bet with my coach that I could get a 52.73 and I lost (Sandford did 52.90sec). I'm disappointed to finish 11th. I came to have a crack at the medals."
A feature of his sliding was his slow starts where he was between 20th and 23rd in the field. He made up for that with some finesse in his steering which saw him climb the rankings.
"One of the features of this track is that you have to steer a lot, and because we're not used to the track I didn't use the optimal form of guidance with the knees and shoulders. Sometimes my feet dragged a bit, but that's just the way it had to be."
In the women's event Tionette Stoddard responded to the booming "Kiwi" chant from fans at the start to beat her initial ranking of 15th going into the event.
She finished 14th, having started the day 17th. That was 6.05sec behind British gold medallist Amy Williams.
Stoddard benefited from consistently fast starts throughout, utilising the power in her former provincial rugby-playing legs.
"That did make me smile," said Stoddard. "But my coach and husband Angus (Ross) was equally pleased because that is what he's invested his time and energy into most."
She also singled out the unsung hero of the campaign - her new sled, which she borrowed from fellow Kiwi skeleton racer, Katharine Eustace.
"I bent two sets of runners on it this week but the sled is intact," said Stoddard. "I just want to reassure my teammate who is extremely generous. I owe her big time."
The 35-year-old was yet to decide on her future plans after six years in the sport, culminating in her Olympic debut.
Meanwhile, Iain Roberts pulled out of the men's event heading into the final two rounds after suffering a brutal second run yesterday, leaving him 28th and last.
He had already suffered a cut to the chin and concussion during training. Doctors hadn't ruled him out of racing but today he had difficulty even doing his shoelaces up, so opted out.
Of the other New Zealanders in action, Tim Cafe finished 38th of 61 entrants in alpine skiing's Super G.
Sixteen competitors failed to finish, including fellow Kiwi Ben Griffin. Cafe, who at 22 was the fifth youngest in the field, was 5.21 seconds behind Norwegian winner Aksel Lund Svindal who edged American Bode Miller into wearing his third Olympic silver medal.
Cross-country skier Ben Koons will make his Olympic debut in the 30km pursuit tomorrow.
The haemogoblin levels in his blood have reduced to within the health safety standards required for Olympic competition.
Short-track speed skater Blake Skjellerup is back in the short-track speed skating at the Pacific Coliseum, contesting the 1000m quarterfinal.
