James 'Jack' Crawford clinches World Champs gold for Canada in men's Super-G 

Canada's James 'Jack' Crawford scored a surprise win in the men's Super-G at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships on Thursday (9 February), as he narrowly edged out the pre-race favourites.

Racing on Courchevel's L'Eclipse track, the 25-year-old – who has only one World Cup Super-G podium in his career – began his run slowly, but skied a smart, controlled race, picking up speed in the lower sections of the track.

Crawford's third and fourth sectors were among the quickest of all the skiers – despite being behind Aleksander Aamodt Kilde through the first three time checks, the Canadian gained enough speed to dip 0.01 second ahead of Kilde at the line, equivalent to a distance of just 0.28 metres.

With the win, Crawford – who is also the current Olympic bronze medallist in combined – picked up Canada's first World Championships gold medal since Erik Guay won the same event six years ago at St Moritz 2017.

"I knew that [Marco] Odermatt, Kilde and all those guys were extremely fast and I just did enough to be able to beat them. I'm just happy I was on their level today because I know that in any condition, any course they can be fast and I definitely felt like I took advantage of what I was good on," Crawford said in the post-race press conference.

"I was able to put down my best skiing, on a line that was very I would say on the more risky side. It panned out for me: all year in Super G for me has been kind of a struggle to get down to the bottom, so I was just really happy I made it all the way down today,

"It's been a long time that I've dreamed of being on the top step on the world stage and I've been teasing with it over the last couple of years with a few World Cup podiums (Crawford has three in total, with two in downhill) and an Olympic Games bronze, but to be able to come out today and actually put down a run that was worthy of winning was an amazing experience and I'm definitely going to cherish this day for a long time."

While Kilde had to settle for silver, the result still marked a first career World Championships medal for the Norwegian.

Kilde appeared to have the win locked up as he skied a powerful race, focusing on speed over control, taking chunks out of the lead held until then by local boy and Tuesday's combined champion Alexis Pinturault.

Pinturault's bronze medal position was threatened by several of the later skiers, but none could overtake the Frenchman, who celebrated his second medal of his home Championships 0.26 seconds behind Crawford.

Combined world silver medallist Marco Schwarz came closest to displacing Pinturault, with the fastest third sector time, before a wild finish in which he barely stayed upright on his skis saw him lose time to drop to sixth.

Results - 2023 World Championships men's Super-G (top 8)

1. James Crawford (CAN) 1:07.22
2. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) +0.01
3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA) +0.26
4. Marco Odermatt (SUI) +0.37
5. Raphael Haaser (AUT) +0.58
6. Marco Schwarz (AUT) +0.59
7. Adrian Smiseth Sejersted (NOR) +0.62
8. Loïc Meillard (SUI) +0.65