COURCHEVEL, France — Canadian skier James Crawford edged Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by one-hundredth of a second to win the gold medal in the men’s super-G at the world championships on Thursday.

It was another perfect day for ski racing in Courchevel, France. Because of a desire to avoid using three lifts to get to the start, the course is relatively short for elite men, but the snow is perfect. As predicted, the speeds were high, creating a good test of the world’s best. If ski racing fans like lead changes and surprises, the men’s world championship super-G did not disappoint. While the discipline has been predictable during the 2022-23 season, this race was not. The winner’s name was not Marco Odermatt or Kilde. It was Canada’s, Crawford.

The Canadian came into the event ranked 14th in the discipline. Notably, before the championships he had lost some of his early-season speed and experienced recent race disappointment. Today, however, he was his best. When Crawford left the start, one of the prerace favorites, Kilde, had delivered a fully committed run and had the lead. However, Crawford overcame a significant deficit at the top of the course to produce fast final two sectors and overtake the great Kilde by (-0.01). The well mannered Kilde revealed his disappointment in the finish. Although his second place was his first world championship podium, before Crawford finished, he likely thought he had won. Ultimately, he ended the day seemingly happy with his second place result.

Crawford trailed the Norwegian halfway through his run but mastered the final section to win the race for Canada’s 11th medal at world championships and fourth gold. The last Canadian winner was Erik Guay, who won super-G gold six years ago.

James Crawford adds his name to the list of Canadian world champions. Crawford knows what it takes to stand on the steps of an elite podium but today, he found the speed he has never previously experienced and won. He used an aggressive race line and skiing to beat the rest of the world’s best.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting anything today,” Crawford said. “It was consistency from top to bottom. I pushed out of the gate with a very clear mindset on where I wanted to be, what I wanted to ski.”

Crawford has yet to win a World Cup race but has three podium results, most recently at a December Bormio downhill in Italy.

Notably, Crawford’s head coach John Kucera won the 2009 world championship downhill for the Canadians in Val d’lsere France.

Crawford is not the only surprise of the day. The alpine combined winner and Courchevel native Alexis Pinturault finds himself on his second podium of the championships. When he left the start, another prerace favorite, Marco Odermatt, was in the lead. Using the confidence gained by winning the combined super-G on the same L’Eclipse slope, he was able to reel in Odermatt at the bottom and cross with the lead.

Alexis Pinturault finished (+0.26) behind to take bronze, two days after the Frenchman won the combined race at the worlds in his hometown.

This is the first super-G of the season that prerace favorite, Odermatt did not make the podium. The excellent skier has yet to stand on a world championship podium.

Defending champion Vincent Kriechmayr finished more than eight tenths off the pace and outside the top 10. The Austrian, Odermatt and Kilde are the only skiers to win a super-G on the World Cup circuit in the past two years.

Matthias Mayer won the Olympic title last year but the Austrian retired in December. American racer Ryan Cochran-Siegle, the Olympic silver medalist, finished 1.52 off the lead.

Italian skier Dominik Paris had a nasty crash after skiing through a gate. He got up but was later limping in the finish area.

The Italians wore black armbands after the passing of Elena Fanchini, the skier who had her career cut short by a tumor and died Wednesday at the age of 37.

Unfortunately, three US athletes barely missed the top 15. A top-fifteen finish would have provided them with the valuable consolation of World Cup Start List points. River Radamus finished 16th and his teammates Kyle Negomir and Ryan Cochran-Siegle finished 17th and 18th.

Top 30 world championship men’s super-G results and analysis of the fastest three and North Americans

Analysis of the fastest four and North Americans

The Associated Press contributed to this report.