Win Canada's first Olympic alpine skiing medal since 2014? Check. Win his first two career FIS World Cup medals? Check.
Jack Crawford wrapped up an already-iconic year with even more hardware in the final week of 2022. On Dec. 28, the Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) alum distinguished himself in a fully-loaded field of international superstars to throw down a career-best second-place downhill finish at Bormio, Italy.
Crawford's time of one minute, 55.08 seconds placed him just four-tenths of a second behind Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr (1:54.68), who has 14 World Cup gold medals and 30 total podium finishes on his resume. Coming in third was Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (1:55.36), one of Norway's "Attacking Vikings" and a 34-time World Cup medallist.
Breakthrough in Bormio
The downhill silver in Italy was just the second World Cup podium result of Crawford's career. The Thornbury, Ont. native achieved his first, a downhill bronze, on Dec. 3 in Beaver Creek, Colo.
"I'm really happy with a second-place finish today," beamed the 25-year-old Crawford after the race. "Moving into the new year, I couldn't be happier than to be standing on the podium."
Three other Canadians finished in the top 20 and collected World Cup points in Bormio. Cameron Alexander (12th) and Brodie Seger (16th) of North Vancouver were in the mix, as was Jeffrey Read of Canmore, Alta. (19th). Whistler's own Broderick Thompson placed 41st.
"Today was a really good team result," Crawford added. "We haven't had this many guys in the top 20 in a long time and to see everyone pushing and putting down skiing like that is really exciting."
Then on Dec. 29, Crawford managed a respectable sixth-place finish in super-G (1:30.78), his third top-11 this season in the discipline. Marco Odermatt, Kriechmayr and Loic Meillard stood on the podium that day, but Riley Seger of North Vancouver emerged from the pack to finish 15th, the best result of his World Cup career so far.
Read (17th), Thompson (33rd), Alexander (34th) and Brodie Seger (38th) also finished their super-G runs in Bormio.
"The track was pretty icy and bumpy," said Riley, 25, with a grin. "I didn't do any of the training runs so I wasn't sure what to expect. I got some great information from my teammates that you just had to push it. I'm excited and happy to take this into the new year."
Crawford and his fellow alpine speed merchants will return to action Jan. 13 to 15 in Wengen, Switzerland.
