Can skiing's scariest race turn Canada's fortunes around?

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It's been a pretty exciting Olympic season in alpine skiing.

The biggest story, of course, is the incredible re-apex of 41-year-old American star Lindsey Vonn. Injuries forced the four-time World Cup overall champion to limp away from the sport in 2019 with a then-record 82 career victories on the women's tour. Equipped with a new titanium knee, she returned last season and, after some mixed results, won a silver in her final race, becoming by far the oldest woman to reach an alpine World Cup podium. Now, more than a year into her comeback, Vonn has emerged as a gold-medal favourite for what will be her sixth Olympics. She's won a medal in all five women's downhills so far this season, including a pair of golds, while reaching the podium in seven of her eight starts overall.

We've also seen an impressive comeback by five-time overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S., who broke Vonn's all-time World Cup women's wins record in 2023. After a nasty puncture wound derailed her hopes for a ninth slalom Crystal Globe last year, Shiffrin has bounced back to win six of the seven slaloms so far this season, with a silver in the other one.

Plus, there's the timely return of reigning women's overall champ Federica Brignone of Italy. She finished sixth yesterday in her first race since shattering her leg last April, putting her on track to compete in her home Olympics next month.

On the men's side, Swiss star Marco Odermatt continues to amaze. His seven wins in 15 starts this season have given him a massive lead in the chase for his fifth consecutive overall title, and he's also on track for his third straight Crystal Globes in the downhill, super-G and giant slalom.

However, it has not been a great season for Canada's ski racers. They've won only one medal — a bronze by Val Grenier in a women's giant slalom at Quebec's Mont-Tremblant last month. And the two men expected to be Canada's top Olympic contenders, Jack Crawford and Cam Alexander, have not looked like podium material.

Crawford won Olympic bronze in the now-defunct individual combined event (it's been replaced by a pairs version) and finished fourth in the downhill in 2022 before capturing the super-G world title the following year. But he has just one top-10 result in nine starts this season (a seventh in the super-G at Colorado's Beaver Creek last month) and has finished outside the top 20 in two-thirds of his races.

Alexander grabbed a downhill bronze at the 2023 world championships and owns five World Cup medals (all in the downhill). But, returning from a season-ending knee injury suffered at the worlds last February, he hasn't cracked the top six through seven starts this season and has been outside the top 15 the majority of the time.

The good news is that Crawford and Alexander have an opportunity to turn things around this week as the men's World Cup tour makes its much-celebrated annual stop in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

Kitzbuhel is home to the most revered — and feared — downhill in the world. The legendary Streif course's diabolical array of rough terrain, steep drops, sharp turns and long jumps (skiers can be airborne for as much as 60 metres at a time) challenges the skills and courage of the world's best downhillers like no other. There have been several near-death experiences on the Streif over the years, including Canadian Brian Stemmle's infamous 1989 crash. But whoever wins this race earns the respect and admiration of his peers, not to mention the 50,000 or so fans who come out to watch it.

Last year, the flowers went to Crawford, who became the first Canadian to win the Kitzbuhel downhill since Ken Read, Steve Podborski (twice) and Todd Brooker of the legendary Crazy Canucks did it four straight years from 1980-1983. It was also Crawford's first-ever World Cup gold, and Alexander joined him on the podium with a bronze, matching his best result of the season.

Crawford and Alexander are clearly built for Kitzbuhel. So maybe their return to this hallowed place can give them a much-needed boost of confidence heading into the Olympics.

The action in Kitzbuhel starts with the super-G — a slightly less sinister hybrid of the downhill and giant slalom — on Friday at 5:30 a.m. ET. The downhill goes Saturday at the same time. Watch both races live on the CBC Sports website and the CBC Gem streaming app.