January 26, 2008 (Canmore, Alta.) – She didn’t sleep very well the night before and at breakfast couldn’t choke down her toast. There were telltale butterflies in her stomach, but as soon as she arrived at the Canmore Nordic Centre, Chandra Crawford felt ready.

“The nerves faded away, the sun came out, the track got really fast.” It was all there waiting for Crawford to fly. And fly she did. The Olympic gold medalist had the second fastest qualifying time, missing the leading time by Finland’s Virpi Kuitunen by 0.05 seconds. When the quarter finals rolled around Crawford looked like she had started fresh again. Not only did she immediately dominate, claiming the lead position into the first turn on the relatively flat course, she distinguished herself with a particular style that made it impossible not to find her in the pack. She traded off the front spot, took it again, lost it, but still came second and qualified for the semi.

Crawford is a brilliant glider. While others, even at this world class level, can appear choppy or hurried, Crawford is always long and smooth. There is an inner-clock that keeps her calm. Her cadence has a less rapid turnover than anyone else in the field; her power on the skis is overwhelming. In the semi-final this was clear again. The consummate conserver of energy, she flew again to the second position, which qualified her for the final.

Despite predictions of snow the sun remained. Thousands lined the course, creating an avalanche of cheering. Crawford settled into the start line, smiled at the crowd and knew she was ready. The gun went and so did Crawford. She was up against the fastest women in the world. So quick were the racers on this day that the World Cup leader in this event, Norway’s Astrid Jacobsen, had been relegated to the B Final.

Finn Pirjo Muranen arrived at the start line with four World Cup wins, five silver medal finishes, and one bronze. Her teammate Virpi Kuitunen won the overall World Cup in 2007, demolishing the field in seven solid first place finishes last season, and came into these races ranked second. She’d already grabbed World Cup gold three times before she arrived in Canmore in the 2007-08 season, and had the fastest qualifying time in the morning with a 2:13:28 over the 1.1 km course. Italians Magda Genuin and Arianna Follis are long-time solid international skiers, while Russian Natalia Matveeva had four World Cup podium finishes under her belt.

Crawford worked her magic as she so powerfully and confidently controlled the race from start to finish. “I think my fast start may be from five years in biathlon. You’re lying on the ground and you’ve got to get up,” she explained later, when asked how she flies from the gun. Somehow she never looks like she’s in a hurry, but she’s the fastest skier on the snow. The Canmore native led for the first half, and then came out of a critical hairpin turn before a short flat section, descent, and finishing straightaway in second position. But as the skiers hit the last 100 metres she simply dug a little deeper. “I don’t remember the last 100 metres” she said.

The rest of us do. Crawford reeled in Muranen and Genuin. Clearly no photo finish was necessary for this race. It was a hometown, home course, Canadian victory.

Later Crawford was asked to compare her Olympic gold medal victory to winning the World Cup at home. “Winning today and at the Olympics were equally special. When I won at the Olympics, it was more of a shock and surprise and today is relief to know I can still do it.” Crawford skied a brilliant race strategy there and won, but was never seen as the favorite. “Today there’s relief. ‘Oh good! I did it.’”

That down-to-earth matter-of-factness surfaced often for the now Olympic and World Cup champion. She added that her younger sister placed 32nd at the Junior World Biathlon Championships today, an achievement of which she was very proud. As race prep she and friend and competitor Magda Genuin went for pizza the night before – Canadian pizza Genuin added.

While fans cheered for Crawford, the rest of the field fought it out for the next two positions. In the end Muranen took second, Genuin the bronze, while Mateeva skied to the fourth place, with Follis and Kuitunen fifth and sixth.

There were no other podium finishes for North American skiers, but Kikkan Randall of the USA also started the day right with the 5th fastest time in the qualifiers at 1.27 seconds back. She placed second her her quarter final, and said she raced exactly as she planned. “I skied exactly as I planned – stay out of trouble and play it safe,” said Randall, who had won gold in this event in Russia in December. She was referring to the hairpin corner that took out many of the competitors in the men’s race, and generally tight conditions sprinters find themselves in during a race of this nature.

She, Genuin and Crawford all found themselves in the same semi-final. Genuin and Crawford pulled away and created a gap that Randall couldn’t bridge. She placed second in the B Final for eighth place overall. “I went all out for the podium, but I didn’t have enough energy left at the top of the second hill. Chandra and Magda got away and I couldn’t go with them. I have to hand it to Chandra. It’s so cool for her to win right at home. I’m really happy about that.”

Top Canadian Sara Renner was happy with her results in just her second international competition after taking last season off to have a baby. She placed 23rd in qualifying times, and skied into third place in her quarter final heat for 16th place overall. “I exceeded my expectation,” she said about where she thought she would be at this point. Renner also loved the atmosphere. “When I come back here, it feels like it’s so good, I almost don’t want to go on a holiday.” Her husband Tomas Grandi was there with their daughter, along with a roaring and approving crowd.

Also skiing into the quarter finals from North America were Canadians Sara Daitch in 19th place, and Perianne Jones who finished 30th.

Results

Women

1. Chandra Crawford (Can)
2. Pirjo Muranen (Fin)
3. Magda Genuin (Ita)
4. Natalia Matveeva (Rus)
5. Arianna Follis (Ita)
6. Virpi Kuitunen (Fin)
7. Petra Majdic (Slo)
8. Kikkan Randall (USA)
9. Stefanie Boehler (Ger)
10. Astrid Jacobsen (Nor)
11. Vesna Fabjan (Slo)
12. Riikka Sarasoja (Fin)
13. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (Fin)
14. Katja Visnar (Slo)
15. Ida Ingemarsdotter (Swe)
16. Sara Renner (Can)
17. Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle (Ger)
18. Madoka Natsumi (Jpn)
19. Sarah Daitch (Can)
20. Anna Hansson (Swe)
21. Justyna Kowalczyk (Pol)
22. Riitta-Liisa Roponen (Fin)
23. Olga Rotcheva (Rus)
24. Karin Camenisch (Sui)
25. Natalia Korosteleva (Rus)
26. Mona-Lisa Malvalehto (Fin)
27. Claudia Nystad (Ger)
28. Viktoria Lopatina (Blr)
29. Evgenia Shapovalova (Rus)
30. Perianne Jones (Can)
31. Aurore Cuinet (Fra)
32. Sabina Valbusa (Ita)
33. Maria Rydqvist (Swe)
34. Alena Prochazkova (Svk)
35. Emilie Vina (Fra)
36. Nobuko Fukuda (Jpn)
37. Caroline Weibel (Fra)
38. Katrin Zeller (Ger)
39. Nicole Fessel (Ger)
40. Evgenia Medvedeva (Rus)
41. Andrea Dupont (Can)
42. Daria Gaiazova (Can)
43. Esther Bottomley (Aus)
44. Laura Valaas (USA)
45. Seraina Boner (Sui)
46. Lindsay Williams (USA)
47. Marina Piller (Ita)
48. Madeleine Williams (Can)
49. Shayla Swanson (Can)
50. Laurence Rochat (Sui)
51. Heidi Widmer (Can)
52. Alysson Marshall (Can)
53. Alena Sannikova (Blr)
54. Kate Brennan (Can)
55. Kate Arduser (USA)
56. Brooke Gosling (Can)
57. Julia Ivanova (Rus)
58. Rhonda Jewett (Can)
59. Karla Mika (Can)