Crawford wins bronze for Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in alpine combined
Jack Crawford has won Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in the alpine combined, taking bronze at Beijing 2022.
Crawford — who is a stronger speed skier than technical skier — put himself into podium contention by finishing second in the downhill. Crawford was just 0.02 of a second back of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, finishing the downhill in 1:43.14.
In the slalom run that followed, Crawford didn’t have the cleanest run, but it was enough to keep him on the podium, with a total time for the two runs of 2:32.11. Johannes Strolz of Austria came back from fourth after the downhill to win gold in 2:31.43. Kilde was 0.59 of a second back for the silver.
Crawford was fourth in the alpine combined at the 2021 World Championships. Already at Beijing 2022, he had finished fourth in the downhill and sixth in the super-G. He missed the podium in the downhill by just 0.07.
It is just the fourth Olympic medal won by a Canadian in a men’s alpine skiing event. Steve Podborski won downhill bronze at Lake Placid 1980, Edi Podivinsky won his own downhill bronze at Lillehammer 1994 and Jan Hudec captured a super-G bronze at Sochi 2014.
Canada’s previous best ever in a men’s Olympic combined event was eighth place by Jean-Philippe Roy at Salt Lake City 2002. Karen Percy had placed fourth in the women’s combined at Calgary 1988.
