Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris will not compete in big air after crashing Wednesday night during training and needing to be stretchered off the course ahead of the Milan Cortina Games.
McMorris announced on Instagram on Thursday that he was pulling out of the event and turning his focus to slopestyle, which begins Feb. 16.
“I hit my head and I will not be able to compete in Big Air tonight, unfortunately,” McMorris said. “Fortunately, things are looking up for Slope Style, so [I’m] just trying to stay positive and shift my focus to that event.”
It was unclear what exactly happened, but the Canadian snowboard team described the crash as “heavy.”
“Working in tandem with the Canada snowboard and Canadian Olympic committee medical teams, it was decided that as a precaution, Mark will skip the big air event to focus his efforts on being fully healthy for slopestyle,” said Canada Snowboard team in a statement.
The 32-year-old is making his fourth Olympic appearance for Canada. Qualifying for the big air competition is set for Thursday night, one day before the Opening Ceremony.
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McMorris has won three bronze medals in his Olympics career. He claimed third in slopestyle in each of the past three Olympics, and he finished 10th in the big air competition in both the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018 and the Beijing Olympics in 2022. He has won four of his 12 X Games gold medals in the big air competition, which was added to the Olympics in 2018. In the big air competition at the Olympics, riders take off from a ramp that is more than 165 feet tall.
McMorris, per the CBC, suffered life-threatening injuries after he slammed into a tree during a backcountry snowboarding accident in 2017. That resulted in him having a rod placed in his leg, a plate in his arm and another plate in his jaw. Despite that and other significant injuries, McMorris said last month that he felt he was in good health entering these Games.
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The men’s big air final is set for Saturday night at the Livigno Snow Park.
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