World champions Laurence St. Germain and James Crawford headline Canada's alpine ski team as athletes prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Canada's St-Germain competes during the first run of an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom race, in Jasna, Slovakia, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Giovanni Maria Pizzato
CALGARY – World champions Laurence St. Germain and James Crawford headline Canada’s alpine ski team as athletes prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Alpine Canada named 53 athletes to its 2024-25 alpine, ski cross and para-ski teams Thursday.
St. Germain, from Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, won the women’s slalom title at the 2023 championships in the French Alps, while Toronto’s Crawford won the men’s Super-G.
Valérie Grenier of St. Isidore, Ont., was also named to the team. She is looking to return to action after a crash cut short the 2023-24 season shortly after she defended her giant slalom title at the World Cup stop in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
Marielle Thompson of Cranbrook, B.C., who finished first overall on last year’s World Cup women’s ski cross circuit, was also named to the team, along with Brittany Phelan of Mont-Tremblant, Que., (third), Ottawa’s Hannah Schmidt (fourth) and India Sherrett of Cranbrook (sixth).
The men’s ski cross team is highlighted by Reece Howden of Chilliwack, B.C., who finished second on the men’s World Cup circuit.
Calgary’s Kurt Oatway, a Paralympic gold medallist in 2018, and four-time world championship medallist Frédérique Turgeon of Montreal headline the para-ski team.
The next alpine world championships start Feb. 4, 2025, in Saalbach, Austria, while the para-alpine championships begin Feb. 16 in a location to be announced and the ski cross championships will start March 19 in Engadin, Switzerland.
The 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics take place February and March, 2026, in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
