Weekend Roundup: Crawford conquers Kitzbuehel; Kingsbury takes two victories

Team Canada athletes made headlines around the world this weekend, highlighted by a feat that hadn’t been achieved in more than four decades at the mecca of men’s alpine skiing.

Back on North American snow, the moguls GOAT got himself a couple wins closer to a major career milestone while the Canadian aerials team put on a grand show in front of the home fans in Lac-Beauport, Quebec. There were several impressive performances at the X Games and a big breakthrough moment for a rising star in cross-country skiing.

Here’s a quick look at what you might have missed:

Alpine Skiing: Crawford wins world’s most famous downhill in Canadian double podium

Jack Crawford broke a 42-year drought in becoming the first Canadian skier since 1983 to win a World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

READ : Crawford earns first career World Cup gold at prestigious Kitzbuehel race

Looking smooth as silk, Crawford raced to victory on the famed Hahnenkamm mountain, home to downhill’s skiing most treacherous course, in a time of 1:53.64. The 20th man down the course, he finished 0.08 of Swiss skier Alexis Monney. In taking the lead, Crawford pushed teammate Cameron Alexander, who had finished in 1:53.86, down to third place.

It was first time two Canadians had shared a podium in any alpine skiing World Cup since February 2012 when Jan Hudec won and Erik Guay finished third in Chamonix, France. No Canadian had reached the podium in Kitzbuehel since Guay finished second in 2013.

The win was Crawford’s first ever on the FIS World Cup circuit. The 27-year-old from Toronto had been missing that accolade after winning a world title in super-G and an Olympic bronze medal in alpine combined. It is his fifth career World Cup podium, but first since March 2023. Alexander also has five career World Cup podiums. This is his second of the season after finishing third in the downhill at Bormio, Italy, which will be the Olympic course next February.

Both Canadian men had shown their comfort in Kitzbuehel when in Friday’s super-G, Alexander finished fifth with Crawford not far behind in eighth.

Moguls: Kingsbury gets closer to major career milestone

Mikaël Kingsbury earned two victories in Waterville, New Hampshire over the weekend, bringing his career World Cup win total to 94.

It all started on Friday, when he scored 84.95 points in the second final round to defeat American home favourite Nick Page, who scored 83.55. French veteran Benjamin Cavet rounded out the podium, finishing third with 74.55 points.

READ : Mikaël Kingsbury kicks off 2025 with a moguls win in Waterville

Kingsbury did it again on Saturday, finishing first in the dual moguls event. Kingsbury beat Australia’s Matt Graham in the big final Saturday for his fourth victory of the season. The 32-year-old is just six wins shy of 100 for his career, a feat only achieved by three other athletes in the history of all FIS disciplines.

Maïa Schwinghammer finished just off the podium twice in Waterville. In women’s moguls on Friday, she finished fourth, about half a point back of third place. She made it to the small final of dual moguls, but lost out to Kazakhstan’s Yuliya Galysheva. She has now finished fourth in four of six World Cup events this season.

Aerials: Irving and Nadeau thrill hometown fans in Lac-Beauport

With the home crowd behind them in Lac-Beauport, Quebec, two Canadians delivered World Cup podium performances. On Saturday, Lewis Irving earned his first World Cup podium since December 2022 when he finished second. It was his best World Cup result since he last finished second in February 2020.

READ: Irving flies to podium at hometown World Cup

Irving, who grew up just 30 minutes from the hill, scored 102.50 points to finish behind only China’s Qi Guangpu. It was the highlight of a fantastic day on the hill for Canada, as four Canadians finished in the top 10 of the men’s event. Alexandre Duchaine (5th), Émile Nadeau (7th) and Pierre-Olivier Côté (9th) all competed in the final on Saturday.

On Sunday, Nadeau scored 95.98 to take third place for his third career World Cup podium. He also finished third in Lac-Beauport last season. Two other Canadians, Miha Fontaine (10th) and Duchaine (11th), made it to the final.

READ: Émile Nadeau on the podium at Lac-Beauport

X Games: Four major medals for Canadians

In her first appearance at the X Games since 2021, Cassie Sharpe won the women’s ski superpipe final in Aspen, Colorado. It is her first victory since returning to competition in the fall after a two-year break to become a mother.

Sharpe scored 88.33 points on the first of her two runs in the final, which stood up for the victory. She shared the podium with fellow Canadian Amy Fraser who finished third with 84.66 points. China’s Li Fangui squeezed in between for the silver with 86.66 points. This is Sharpe’s third career win at the X Games and her sixth podium there overall.

Mark McMorris earned his 24th career podium at the X Games, taking silver in men’s snowboard slopestyle. He scored 90.33 points for his second run in the final, but it wasn’t enough to surpass the 92.66 by American Red Gerrard. He was joined in the five-man final by Liam Brearley.

Olivia Asselin won silver in women’s ski slopestyle while teammate Megan Oldham finished fourth in the final. Laurie Blouin placed fourth in the women’s snowboard slopestyle final.

Long Track Speed Skating: Canada closes with gold on home ice

Calgary hosted the third stop of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating. After no Canadians reached the podium on the first two days of competition, the trio of Carolina Hiller, Béatrice Lamarche and Ivanie Blondin secured a gold medal in the women’s team sprint.

Canada finished with a time of 1:24.90, finishing ahead of Poland and Kazakhstan. Hillier and Blondin are reigning world champions of the event alongside Maddison Pearman.

On Friday, Isabelle Weidemann finished fifth in the 5000m—4.64 seconds off of the third-place time—while Connor Howe placed eighth in the men’s 1500m and Lamarche earned a career-best with her eighth-place finish in the women’s 1000m.

On Saturday, Graeme Fish posted a fifth-place finish in the men’s 10,000m, ended up 2.06 seconds back of the podium in a race in which the winner, Davide Ghiotto of Italy, broke the world record.

Recently recovered from injury and a virus, Laurent Dubreuil did well in the men’s 500m, finishing fifth with a time of 34.14 seconds, 0.07 back of third place. Ivanie Blondin finished fourth in the women’s mass start.

Ski Jumping: Loutitt just misses another podium in Japan

A week after earning her second career World Cup win, Alexandria Loutitt came just 4.7 points shy of the podium in Sunday’s normal hill event in Zao, Japan. Loutitt finished fourth after scoring 226.6 points for her two jumps of 94m and 94.5m. She posted the third-best score in the second round of jumping. That followed her eighth-place finish in Friday’s first normal hill event of the weekend.

In between, Loutitt and Abigail Strate finished fifth in the women’s super team event on Saturday.

Cross-Country Skiing: World Cup breakthrough for U23 world champion

Sonjaa Schmidt, the reigning U23 world champion in the women’s sprint, came close to her first career World Cup podium on Saturday. She finished fourth in the sprint free event in Engadin, Switzerland. It is the first individual top-10 result of the 22-year-old’s short World Cup career. She debuted on the elite circuit just one year ago.

After being 10th-fastest in qualifying, Schmidt won her quarterfinal heat to advance to the semifinals. A fourth-place finish in the faster of the two heats sent her off to the six-person final. She pushed hard to challenge for the podium, ending up just 0.79 back of third place.

Snowboard: Gaudet cracks World Cup top 10 in PGS

Arnaud Gaudet finished 10th in the men’s parallel giant slalom World Cup that took place in Rogla, Slovenia. It is the best PGS result of the season for the 24-year-old athlete from Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec. Gaudet was fifth-fastest in qualification, which advanced him into the elimination finals. But he was knocked out in the 1/8 finals by Austrian Benjamin Karl, the reigning Olympic champion.

Biathlon: Another top 10 for Canadian women’s relay

The Canadian team of Pascale Paradis, Emma Lunder, Benita Peiffer and Nadia Moser finished 10th in the women’s 4x6km relay at the IBU Biathlon World Cup in Antholz-Anterselva in Italy—the venue that will host Olympic competition next February. They clocked a time of 1:11:11.7 to follow up last week’s ninth-place finish in the same event.