{"id":454573,"date":"2026-02-05T02:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T02:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:39:11","slug":"mark-mcmorris-crash-overshadows-canadas-opening-curling-win-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454573\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark McMorris crash overshadows Canada\u2019s opening curling win at Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada opened competition\u00a0at\u00a0the Milan Cortina\u00a0Winter\u00a0Olympics\u00a0on Wednesday with a\u00a0win\u00a0in mixed doubles\u00a0curling, while concern grew after snowboarder Mark\u00a0McMorris\u00a0crashed during big air<\/a> training in Livigno.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Officials from Canada\u2019s\u00a0snowboard team did not immediately provide an update on the three-time Olympic bronze medallist\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old\u00a0McMorris\u00a0is competing in his fourth Olympic Games<\/a> and had been preparing for Thursday night\u2019s big air qualifying. Big air riders launch off a ramp built on scaffolding that rises more than 50 metres above the course.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMedical personnel stretcher Canada\u2019s Mark McMorris off after crashing during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

McMorris\u00a0has won all three of his Olympic medals in slopestyle and owns four X Games gold medals in big air. He suffered life-threatening injuries in 2017 after crashing into a tree during a backcountry ride and has since competed with a rod in his leg, a plate in his arm and another in his jaw.<\/p>\n

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Last month,\u00a0McMorris\u00a0said he was feeling healthy heading into the first\u00a0Olympics\u00a0of his 30s.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:06
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFamily of Olympic medallist Mark McMorris celebrate his latest victory\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been feeling pretty good, staying strong and putting quite a bit of effort in the gym to build a robust frame,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause what we do can be a little tricky\u00a0at\u00a0times on the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

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Earlier on Wednesday, Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman defeated Czechia\u2019s Julie Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky 10-5 in their mixed doubles round-robin opener\u00a0at\u00a0the Cortina Olympic\u00a0Curling\u00a0Stadium, two days ahead of the\u00a0opening\u00a0ceremony.<\/p>\n

The Canadian mixed doubles team handled a series of unusual interruptions in a game that was comfortable on the scoreboard but far from routine. Play was briefly halted by an arena power outage in the\u00a0opening\u00a0end, and a technical timeout was later called after a pre-placed stone was set incorrectly.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tJill Biden\u2019s ex-husband William Stevenson charged with murder in wife\u2019s death\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tDanielle Smith says Alberta will withhold funding for judges without more input on selection\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf things are out of our control, it might be easy to get frustrated a little bit,\u201d Gallant said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been around long enough to know that\u2019s not helping too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The husband-and-wife duo from Chestermere, Alta., scored four points in the second end to take a 5-0 lead. The Czechs replied with three in the third before Canada added two more in the fourth. Peterman made a soft tap for three in the sixth, and the teams shook hands after seven ends.<\/p>\n

Canada is looking to return to the podium in mixed doubles after missing out on a medal\u00a0at\u00a0the 2022 Beijing Games.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, men\u2019s alpine skiing got underway with downhill training on the Stelvio course in Bormio. Jeffrey Read of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian, finishing 10th. Cameron Alexander and Brodie Seger of North Vancouver, B.C., placed 20th and 21st, Toronto\u2019s James (Jack) Crawford was 28th, and North Vancouver\u2019s Riley Seger finished 34th.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Canada begins defence of its Olympic women\u2019s hockey gold medal against Finland in Milan.<\/p>\n

Gallant and Peterman continue round-robin play in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo against Norway in the morning and Italy later in the day.<\/p>\n

The Milan Cortina\u00a0Olympics\u00a0officially get underway Friday with a multi-site\u00a0opening\u00a0ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada opened competition\u00a0at\u00a0the Milan Cortina\u00a0Winter\u00a0Olympics\u00a0on Wednesday with a\u00a0win\u00a0in mixed doubles\u00a0curling, while concern grew after snowboarder Mark\u00a0McMorris\u00a0crashed during big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[186707,49,48,186708,148526,16061,4963,82],"class_list":["post-454573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-big-air","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mark-mcmorris","tag-milan-cortina","tag-olympic-games","tag-olympics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}