James Crawford and Cameron Alexander bring a combination of confidence and hunger to the world alpine ski championship.
The duo recently electrified ski racing when Toronto's Crawford became the first Canadian in 42 years to win the downhill on Kitzbuehel's historic and gnarly Streif course in Austria.
Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., joined his teammate on the podium in third for Canada's first double podium in a World Cup downhill since 2012.
The biennial world championship starting Tuesday at the Austrian resort in Saalbach-Hinterglemm will be their first races since Kitzbuehel.
Sunday's downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, was cancelled due to fog.
The world championship is a performance indicator on the Canadians' road to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
Crawford, called "Jack" more often than "James", is the defending world super-G champion. Alexander was a downhill bronze medallist two years ago in Courcheval, France.
"Standing on the super-G podium, that was incredible," Crawford recalled. "That was a huge success for my career, being able to claim a world champs medal.
"There's other things I'd like to be able to accomplish at the world championships like a downhill. It would also be very cool to be able to contend again to defend my super-G title. I don't know how many times in a career you get that opportunity.
"For me, going into the world championship, it's just about staying hungry and really trying to find every little thing I can do to be faster."
The championship opens Tuesday with team parallel slalom followed by women's and men's super-G on Thursday and Friday respectively. The women's and men's downhills go Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Crawford's super-G crown two years ago in Courcheval inspired Alexander for the downhill race there.
"Winning would be really special. It was very cool to see Jack do that last time. It gave me a little bit of boost for the downhill," Alexander said. "I give him a little bit of credit there. I look forward to laying it all out there. These one-shot races are a unique opportunity where you just have to give it everything you've got. If you mess up, you mess up.
"You always take confidence from big results, but you need to continue to always be looking to go super hard because everybody is going to be really hard and pushing all the time and that's what it takes every race. I can't expect because I did well in one spot that I'm going to be good at the other."
Reigning women's slalom champion Laurence St-Germain of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., is another Canadian to watch Feb. 15 as she attempts a repeat.
Valerie Grenier of St-Isidore, Ont., is a two-time World Cup winner in giant slalom. The women's GS is Feb. 13 in Saalbach.
Alexander and Crawford, both 27, rank sixth and seventh in the world in downhill, with Alexander holding the No. 7 spot in super-G.
The latter discipline is the strength of the Canadian men's. While they were held off the podium, five finished in the top-30 in Kitzbuehel's super-G.
"There's a lot of hyper-fixation right now on this result in Kitzbuehel, which was awesome and a great achievement," said men's downhill coach John Kucera, who was the men's world downhill champion in 2009 in Val-d'Isere, France.
"Nobody in this room is surprised. We've been at this level for a while. It's cool that it came together in Kitz because it's such a famed venue, but for us, it's important that we don't want to get over-comfortable or overly confident."
Saalbach's season-ending men's downhill was cancelled last year due to bad weather, although the men got a super-G in that weekend.
"Saalbach is a course we have a decent amount of experience on," Alexander said. "There's flat and it's technical. We can excel in any of those. Hopefully it's a spot that, if we put it together, it'll be a good day."
World championships mimic the performance-on-demand environment of an Olympic Games, so Saalbach offers a mindset dress rehearsal for Bormio's Olympic course in just over a year.
"Olympic Games and world championships are special because you only get so many in your career to compete in and they're races that aren't every year," said Crawford, who was the alpine combined Olympic bronze medallist in 2022.
"Being able to show up to those races through a career and be able to claim medals is super special."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
