McMorris out of hospital and 'doing fine,' could compete in big air qualifying at Winter Olympics

Canada Snowboard vice president Brendan Matthews called it standard protocol to load a rider onto a stretcher after an accident and said McMorris would be evaluated a few hours before the start of Thursday night's big air qualifying. If he can't compete in that, Matthews said McMorris would definitely be ready to go for slopestyle, which starts Feb. 16.

“It’s always looks scary when somebody takes a hard fall like that, but all things considered, it’s good news," Matthews said. "Mark wishes to thank everybody for the outpouring of support and concern. We just didn’t have any specific details last night to be able to share.”

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.

Matthews said McMorris caught a heel edge on loose snow after he landed and “had a hard fall.” He lay motionless for about a minute while the medical team rushed out. He was conscious as he was being placed on the stretcher.

“It’s pretty standard protocol to be assisted off the hill just to make sure that they’re doing everything by the book," Matthews said. “So Mark was assisted off the slope yesterday, he was taken with our medical team and the Canadian Olympic Committee medical team to the local hospital for a full round of testing.”

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.

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.”

Matthews said it was jarring to see the accident.

“You don’t like to see anybody fall, let alone somebody of the stature of Mark," he said. "And you know, if it’s Mark, and he’s not getting up right away, he’s taken a pretty hard fall, because he’s as tough as they come.”

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Milan contributed to this report.

___ AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics