James Crawford- The Canadian Surprise Big Names To Win Super-G Gold As Kilde Takes Silver
On a day when all eyes were on the likes of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Marco Odermatt to contest the gold medal in the men’s super-G competition, it was left to Canada’s James Crawford to uspet the odds and steal the win from the big pre-race favourites in memorable fashion. Kilde had to make to with the silver medal, while Alexis Pinturault took the bronze.
James Crawford pulled off a major upset in the men’s super-G race of the Alpine World Ski Championships, beating the likes of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Marco Odermatt, Loic Meillard, and Alexis Pinturault and on his way to taking the gold medal.
On a day when the lead changed multiple times in quick succession, Crawford’s run after all the big names and favourites saw him soar to the top of the leaderboard with a winning time of 1:07:22.
Meillard of Switzerland, looking to make up for his sixth place in the combined two days earlier, set an early pace with a time of 1:07:87 for the lead.
Italy’s Dominik Paris, the 2019 world champion, got off to a flier and with numerous green lights as he picked up some great opening speed, but he saw his medal dreams come to a dramatic end as he was involved in a heavy fall on his run and looked in some pain.
Thankfully, he did not look to suffer any serious injury and was alright to ski away.
Norway’s Odermatt then fired himself into the lead, although would he have liked a better start on his way to a time of 1:07:59.
His lead didn’t last long as the ‘Courchevel kid’ Pinturault looked to build on his victory in the combined on home turf by launching himself into a gold medal position with a time of 1:07:48.
But now all eyes were on the big pre-race favourite Kilde, who went for pure pace and power on his run to see a fourth successive lead change, clocking in with a time of 1:07:23.
Few expected a fifth change when Crawford took his place at the top of the slopes, but after he beat Kilde’s time by a hundredth of a second, there was jubilation in the Canadian’s camp.
“He’s done it! Oh, my word! A huge upset! A brilliant ski!” roared Nick Fellows on Eurosport commentary. “James Crawford finding sensational speed down the wall of the brave, early into the tuck position on those closing turns, and he’s stolen the gold from Norway!
“Kilde cannot believe it!,” he added. “Beaten into the silver medal position by the narrowest of margins we measure in ski racing.”
The drama wasn’t over as a fine run from Marco Schwarz looked to propel the Austrian into a bronze medal position.
But a mistake on the penultimate turn saw him ultimately miss out, albeit after a fantastic recovery which Fellows on commentary described as the “recovery of the year”, leaving Pinturault to pick up his second medal of the week.
But the day ultimately belonged to Crawford, who secured the gold – his first World Championships medal.
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