Canada’s three-time Olympic bronze-medal snowboarder Mark McMorris crashed Wednesday night during big air training for the Milan Cortina Games and had to be taken off the course on a stretcher.
The 32-year-old McMorris, making his fourth appearance at the Olympics, was getting ready for Thursday night’s qualifying, set for about 24 hours before the opening ceremony.
The Canadian Olympic Committee released a statement Wednesday evening confirming the incident.
“Snowboarder Mark McMorris had a heavy crash this evening during big air training. Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Snowboard staff are attending to him. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” read the statement.
In big air, riders do four, five or more spins after taking off from a ramp that in Livigno is more than 50 metres (165 feet) tall and built on scaffolding.
McMorris won all of his Olympic medals and eight of his 12 X Games titles in slopestyle; the other four X gold medals came in big air, which was added to the Olympic program in 2018.
He suffered life-threatening injuries after slamming into a tree during a backcountry ride in 2017. He has had a rod placed in his leg, a plate in his arm and another in his jaw as the result of that and numerous other injuries he’s endured over the years.
Last month, he told the AP that he was in good health heading into the first Olympics in his 30s.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good, staying strong and putting quite a bit of effort in the gym to build a robust frame,” he said, “because what we do can be a little tricky at times on the body.”
