Olympics-Freestyle Skiing-Canada’s McMorris suffers ‘heavy crash’ in training run

By Lisa Richwine

LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Canada’s snowboarder Mark McMorris, a three-times Olympic bronze medallist set to compete in his fourth Winter Games at Cortina Milano, experienced a “heavy crash” during a training session on Wednesday, a Team Canada statement said.

McMorris was completing practice runs ahead of the men’s big air competition scheduled to start on Thursday in Livigno. The statement gave no details on his condition. Media reports said McMorris was taken off the mountain via stretcher.

“Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Snowboard staff are attending to him,” Team Canada said. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.”

McMorris won bronze medals in slopestyle at Sochi 2014, Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022.

The 32-year-old has battled through injuries throughout his career, including a 2017 crash in which he broke his jaw and left arm, ruptured his spleen, suffered a pelvic fracture, rib fractures and a collapsed lung.

On Tuesday, he said he was feeling fit and looking forward to competing at the Milano Cortina Games.

“My body’s responding well to lots of riding, and I’m having fun,” McMorris said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Ken Ferris)