>> Canada's James Crawford on the super giant slalom course at the World Downhill Skiing Championships in Courchevel, France on February 9, 2023.
Courchevel (France) – Canadian skier James Crawford became sensational world champion in super giant slalom. In Courchevel, France, he won by a single hundredth of a second ahead of Norwegian star Aleksander Aamodt Kild. The third place was taken by local Alexis Pinturault, who followed up the gold from Tuesday's combination with the bronze.
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Photo gallery: 2023 World Championships in downhill skiing
Czech representative Jan Zabystřan made a mistake shortly after the start and did not finish the race.
The main favorite Swiss Marco Odermatt, who won four out of six super-Gs in this World Cup season, finished just below the winners' podium and dominates the ranking of the discipline and the entire series. The six-time junior world champion lost to Pinturault by 11 hundredths and again missed out on a medal from the senior championship. Odermatt was 37 hundredths behind Crawford's time.
The twenty-five-year-old Canadian achieved his first victory among the elite. Crawford's biggest achievement to date was a bronze medal in the combined event at the Beijing Olympics. So far, he has been second twice and third once in World Cup races. He became the second Canadian skier to become the super-G champion after Erik Guaya, who won in 2017.
“It feels pretty incredible to make history as another Canadian world champion,” said Crawford Reuters agency. “I've been trying to win for the last two years and I didn't succeed. Today it came out at the World Cup, which makes it all the sweeter,” he added.
Unlike the favored opponents, he was not under pressure. “Not that I didn't believe I could win, but I didn't think about it,” Crawford said. ” the APA agency quoted Kilde, who won his first medal at his fourth World Cup at the age of 30.
According to his words, he lost the gold due to a mistake in one corner. “I felt like I hit 99 percent of the course, but there was one corner where it didn't quite work out. But even Crawford could have done better,” said Kilde.
Vincent Kriechmayr, the defending champion from last year's championship in Cortina d'Ampezzo, finished only twelfth with a gap of 87 hundredths. The best Austrian was the fifth Raphael Haaser, who confirmed his form after the bronze in the combination.
The Zabystran did not even finish the second race at the championship. He was attacking for a top ten finish in the combined, but dropped out in the slalom. He started the super-G with number 36 and finished shortly after the first split, in which he was at the beginning of the top ten. After the jump, he failed to reach the next goal.
After a wild fall, the experienced Italian Dominik Paris, owner of the 2019 world title, did not finish the race. However, he left the track on his own.
The Italian skiers rode with with black ribbons in honor of former world vice-champion Elena Fanchiniová, who succumbed to cancer on Wednesday at the age of 37.
Men – super giant slalom: 1. Crawford (Can.) 1:07.22 , 2. Kilde (Nor.) -0.01, 3. Pinturault (Fr.) -0.26, 4. Odermatt (Switzerland) -0.37, 5. Hasser -0.58, 6. Schwarz (both Cancer) -0.59, …Zybstřan (CZ) did not finish.
