Jack Crawford made the most prestigious annual Alpine skiing race his first career World Cup victory, becoming the first Canadian in 42 years to win the Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbühel, Austria.
Crawford, the 2023 World super-G champion, skied from bib 20 into the lead by eight hundredths of a second over Swiss Alexis Monney. Another Canadian, Cameron Alexander, placed third. NBC airs highlights Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
“It’s just a huge milestone,” Crawford told Swiss broadcaster SRF. “Everybody dreams of winning this race as a downhiller.”
Crawford also won the 2022 Olympic combined bronze medal, but the 27-year-old had zero World Cup victories before this.
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Canada won four Kitzbühel downhills in the early 1980s with Ken Read (who was in attendance Saturday, as was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Zlatan Ibrahimovic), Steve Podborski and Todd Brooker in the era of the Crazy Canucks.
“A lot of those guys from back in the day, Ken Read has been a huge part in my bring up in skiing,” said Crawford, who as a youth hockey player in Toronto counted Connor McDavid as a teammate.
Europeans had won the last 24 Kitzbühel downhills since American Daron Rahlves’ victory in 2003.
“I’m still a little bit in shock,” Crawford said. “Hopefully tonight, when I’m lifting the Kitzbühel trophy overhead, then it’ll feel totally real.”
This is the first time two Canadians made the same men’s or women’s Alpine World Cup podium since 2012 (Jan Hudec, Eric Guay).
“Knowing that both of us are capable of it,” Crawford said of he and Alexander, “just to show that we can contend with the best teams in the world.”
The Kitzbühel World Cup continues Sunday with a men’s slalom, live on Peacock at 4:15 and 7:30 a.m. ET.
On the women’s World Cup, Federica Brignone won a downhill by one hundredth over fellow Italian Sofia Goggia in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Saturday.
Lindsey Vonn, the 2010 Olympic gold medalist back this season from a five-year retirement, hit bumpy terrain late in her run, bouncing her wide of a gate for a DNF. Vonn was 16th fastest at her last intermediate split.
A women’s super-G is scheduled for Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Sunday in what is expected to be Vonn’s last race before the World Championships from Feb. 4-16 in Saalbach, Austria.