LIVIGNO, Italy — 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.
McMorris, 32, making his fourth appearance at the Olympics, was getting ready for Thursday night’s qualifying, set for about 24 hours before the opening ceremony.
There was no immediate official word on McMorris’ condition.
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.
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 a leg, a plate in an arm and another in his jaw as the result of that and numerous other injuries he has endured over the years.
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