CALGARY — His Canadian teammates call him the contrarian.
When James (Jack) Crawford comes up with an unorthodox way of tackling a ski race, Jeff Read says he doesn’t question it.
“If we have a collective idea or something, he thinks the opposite way,” Read said.
“When it comes to video and analysis, it’s insane how you watch something, and then he just comes out of left field with this wild idea that’s completely different, but not wrong.
“He’s just got a different way of thinking. That is really reflected in the skiing and showing that you can kind of figure out how to beat a certain problem by coming at it this way, instead of that way.”
Crawford will put that trait to the test in Olympic men’s downhill and super-G in the Milan Cortina Games.
Downhill training runs on the Stelvio slope in Bormio start next week. The men’s downhill Feb. 7 offers the first alpine ski medals of the Winter Olympics.
“An Olympic gold medal, that’s for sure something that I’d like to get in my career,” Crawford said. “Hopefully, there’s a good opportunity this year with the weather and just a fair race so that everybody can compete.
“With an event like that, you never really know what everybody’s going to bring, so just make sure that I bring my best skiing, and hopefully that’s enough.”
After Crawford claimed Olympic bronze in alpine combined in Beijing in 2022, he won a world championship in super-G in 2023.
The 28-year-old from Toronto also reached the World Cup podium six times in super-G and downhill, including his 2025 downhill victory on Kitzbuehel’s infamous Hahnenkamm course.
Crawford was also second in a Bormio downhill in 2022.
“Jack’s secret sauce is that no matter whether he’s nervous, whether he is not super happy with how he’s been skiing lately, whatever’s going on ... he goes ‘Screw it. I send it anyway,’” said Brodie Seger.
Added Read: “Jack’s always had just this insane ability to show up on race day and just throw down. He’s been doing it for years. He’s had his fair share of ups and downs, but for sure over the years it’s been such a strong ability.”
The Olympic men’s super-G is Feb. 11. There isn’t an individual alpine combined event on the Olympic menu this time, but a team combined event of slalom and downhill Feb. 9.
Crawford grew up skiing at Georgian Peaks in Ontario before moving to Whistler, B.C.
He played hockey until he was 17 and was briefly a hockey teammate of Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid when they attended the same Toronto academy in Grade 8.
He’s the nephew of 1972 Olympic skier Judy Crawford. His sister, Candace, raced super-G and giant slalom in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
When the hurly-burly of travel and weeks away from home on the World Cup circuit wear on Crawford, reading is one of his escapes.
“I definitely feel like I’m the kind of guy who fixates and crashes at the end of the season,” he said. “That’s something I’ve been working on for many years.
“When the days are busy, and we’re actually racing and doing stuff, you don’t really have time for anything anyway, so it’s more of those off days and days where you do find an afternoon.
“I read a lot of Warhammer books. I’m sure people will know what I’m talking about. I just kind of stick to that genre, and if I get hooked into something, I’ll read the whole thing. If I don’t, then it’ll take me a few months.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2026.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
