Early this morning, in the first-ever downhill race at the Yanqing Alpine Venue in China, Whistler Mountain Ski Club alum Jack Crawford narrowly missed out on an Olympic podium finishing in fourth place, just 0.07 seconds behind the bronze medal winner, Austria's Matthias Mayer.
This is the second time in the last two years that Crawford has narrowly missed out on a podium finish at a major event, after skiing to a fourth-place finish in Alpine Combined at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
But despite the minor disappointment of once again finishing just off the podium, Crawford looks at this finish as a complete success.
"Coming fourth is really cool. I'm super happy that I was able to show that I can contend with these top guys. It's early in my career and I've got a few more Olympics to go but it would still have been really nice to have some hardware on the first day of racing," said Crawford in an Alpine Canada press release. "Today, I'm part of four guys who skied exceptionally well, and I couldn't have done more. I'm happy with my approach and these guys were just a bit faster than I was. Hopefully I can bring it out tomorrow."
When he completed his run, Crawford's time of 1:42.85 was enough to put him in second-place behind Mayer. But with many other racers still to go, all Crawford could do was sit and wait to see if his time would be enough for a medal.
"The wait at the bottom was not too fun. It's much better to be at the top getting ready to race," he said in the release. "There were a lot of good skiers coming down after me, so when I crossed the finish line, I knew it would be a decent time, but I also knew there were a lot of guys who were big threats."
In the same race, following a crash in his training run, fellow WMSC alum Brodie Seger—the fourth-place finisher in super-G at the World Championships last season—skied to a disappointing 22nd-place finish.
"Result-wise, I'm a bit disappointed because I know I've got the potential to do a lot better, especially seeing Jack's result," he said in the release. "I had some nerves playing today after my crash in training and that was definitely on my mind. Nevertheless, I'm still happy with my mindset. I still pushed hard even though I wish I could have been faster where I had my crash. I learned from my experience and I can build on [it]."
Meanwhile, after starting the race with multiple green intervals, Whistler's Broderick Thompson crashed late in his run, giving the two time Olympian a DNF designation. Thankfully, he was able to ski down uninjured.
All three former WMSC racers will be back in action tonight for the super-G event starting at 7 p.m. PST.
