BEIJING — Aleksander Aamodt Kilde took the lead after the first run of the men’s Alpine combined skiing race Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

The Norwegian, who won bronze in the super-G on Tuesday, leads Jack Crawford of Canada by 0.02 seconds after the downhill run of the event.

The combined adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.

Another Canadian, Brodie Seger, was third fastest, 0.42 behind Kilde.

The 29-year-old Kilde finished fifth in Monday’s rescheduled downhill race, with Crawford finishing just above him in fourth. He followed that with a medal in super-G, but he isn’t expecting to get another in combined.

“I don’t think so,” Kilde said when asked if he had a big enough advantage to finish on the podium. “But, you know, slalom is slalom and anything can happen.

“I haven’t skied slalom in two years so for me it doesn’t really matter what comes. It’s going to be challenging anyways.”

Kilde has been given tips by girlfriend Mikaela Shiffrin, who won gold in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games. Her 47 career World Cup wins in the slalom are more than anyone else has won in any single event — although the American failed to finish both of her events so far at he Beijing Games.

“She just said to me, ‘Keep up the tempo and keep the skis under you.’ And that’s what I’m going to do,” Kilde said.

Seger also hasn’t skied slalom in two years. But the 26-year-old Canadian opted not to cram in a training session on Wednesday and instead get some much needed rest.

“It’s been a while. But it’s like riding a bike, isn’t it?” Seger said. “I haven’t even skied on these skis I’m using this afternoon. They’re not mine. Atomic was nice enough to toss a couple of pairs of skis my way just for today.”

One of the favorites for Thursday’s combined, Alexis Pinturault, is nearly two seconds behind Kilde. The Frenchman won silver in the combined at the 2021 word championships — where he was defending his title — and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, but has failed to finish four of six slalom races this season.

“I’m a bit disappointed with my downhill but I know that nevertheless there’s still two runs,” the 30-year-old Pinturault said. “I’m certainly far from the top positions. The gap is quite big for me to be favorite.

“But I just have to be focused, because there’s still a second run and you never know what can happen … The gap is big but anything is possible.”

Thursday’s race only has 27 total entrants, compared to 43 for the downhill and 47 for the super-G earlier in the week. It’s the first time in Olympic history that the event is taking place without at least one American racer.

The race had to be delayed for about 10 minutes when Yannick Chabloz crashed and was taken away in a sled. The Swiss skier tumbled into a barrier and then slid down part of the mountain.