Canadian alpine skier James Crawford claimed a silver medal in a men's World Cup super-G race of tight margins on Sunday.
Toronto's Crawford finished 0.38 seconds behind Italian star Dominik Paris, who won his second race in three days. Miha Hrobat of Slovenia was 0.47 seconds behind the leader in third.
Crawford, 27, reached the sixth World Cup podium of his career. On a course shortened by fog on the mountain, he was in the leader's chair for five racers before settling for second.
“Super happy with the day,†Crawford said in an Alpine Canada press release. “You really had to be on the gas pedal today and to be willing to put it on the line. I was able to ski smoothly from top to bottom and to bring speed from section to section."
The result moved Crawford into the top 10 of the super-G standings heading into the World Cup Finals from March 22 to 27 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
It also continued a trend of successful results for Canadians in Kvitfjell. Canada has five podiums in the last three seasons at the Norwegian ski resort, including another silver from Crawford in 2022.
Canadians Manuel Osborne-Paradis (2009), Erik Guay (2010, 2014) and Cameron Alexander (2022) have wins on the hill.
“Canadians have been notoriously fast here in Kvitfjell," Crawford said. "A lot of us feel comfortable here as the snow is very similar to what we grew up skiing on in Canada. That helps us to bring our best skiing and to push from top to bottom.â€
Crawford, the super-G world champion in 2023, became the first Canadian skier in 42 years to win the prestigious World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in January.
Meanwhile, Paris had just one World Cup race win in three years before winning two in quick succession.
Paris was the only racer to break clear in a super-G and added to his
Take Paris out of Sunday’s race and the top 30 including six of the United States team all would have been within one second and Crawford would have won.
Paris was there, however, as the standout racer ahead of Crawford and Hrobat.
“The feeling was amazing," the 35-year-old Paris said. "Seeing the green light in the finish, that’s nice.â€
The German-speaking Italian with the French-sounding family name is most at home on the Norwegian slope that staged the 1994 Olympics races.
He now has six of his 24 career World Cup wins at Kvitfjell, where he also completed a weekend double in downhill and super-G in 2019, and won a downhill in March 2022.
“It’s a good hill for me but I didn’t know it was like this. It’s more than I expected,†Paris said.
That 2019 season was a career peak for Paris. He won a career-best seven World Cup races, plus his only gold medal — in super-G at the 2019 worlds — and his only World Cup crystal trophy, for the season-long super-G title. That success came after spending the summer recording an album as a , Rise of Voltage.
Marco Odermatt placed fourth, 0.01 seconds behind Hrobat, though his season-long super-G title was confirmed in mid-week when his closest challenger, Paris’s teammate Mattia Casse, was injured crashing in a training run for the downhill.
It was the first time in 17 men's speed races this season, in the World Cup or world championships, that no Swiss skier was on the podium.
“It’s quite an achievement, I think. They are really, really good this year,†said Hrobat, who twice was third in downhills when beaten by two Swiss racers.
Odermatt earned 50 race points Sunday and has an unbeatable lead of 210 in the super-G standings before the last race at Sun Valley. It is his third straight super-G title.
The Swiss superstar's fourth straight overall World Cup title also is assured with a 570-point lead over Henrik Kristoffersen and just six races left. Though 600 points can be won, Kristoffersen does not race in downhill or super-G.
Kristoffersen will be favoured to pick up points next weekend when the men’s World Cup circuit stays in Norway for a giant slalom and slalom at nearby Hafjell.
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