LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris was out of the hospital Thursday after suffering a nasty crash during big air training for the Winter Olympics, with a team official saying it is too early to know if one of the country's biggest stars will compete at the Games.
Eric Myles, the sports director for Canada's Olympic team, said McMorris was “doing fine” back at the athletes village and that team doctors were assessing him hour by hour. The 32-year-old, three-time bronze medalist had to be taken off the course on a stretcher Wednesday night after apparently hitting his head and neck while landing.
Qualifying for big air was Thursday night, about 24 hours before the opening ceremony. McMorris is also entered in the men's slopestyle contest — the event he finished third in at the last three Games — set for Feb. 16.
“We’re not going to take a chance on the health of an athlete," Myles said in Milan, where the first question of his news conference was for an update on McMorris. "It would be premature to take any decision right now.”
In big air, riders do four, five or more spins after taking off from a ramp that, in Livigno, is more than 50 meters (165 feet) tall and built on scaffolding.
On his landing, McMorris lay motionless for about a minute while the medical team rushed out. He was conscious as he was being placed on the stretcher.
Though others — Max Parrot and Sebastien Toutant — have won Olympic gold medals and McMorris has not, he might be the best-known member on the successful Canadian snowboard team. He has a record 22 X Games medals, 12 of them gold. Eight of those have come in slopestyle and the other four in big air.
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This is hardly McMorris' first brush with a bad crash.
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 over the years.
Last month, he told The Associated Press 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.”
AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Milan contributed to this report.
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