Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck / Photo: © AFP
Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck
Australian snowboarder Cam Bolton was airlifted to hospital with two neck fractures following a fall in training and is out of the Winter Olympics.
The 35-year-old suffered the injury on Monday but complained of "worsening neck pain" the following day, the Australian Olympic Committee said.
A CT scan identified that his neck was broken in two places and he was put on a helicopter to Milan.
It is one of several injury blows to hit Australia at the Olympics in Italy.
Another snowboarder, Misaki Vaughan, is also out after failing a head injury assessment following a fall on Monday.
"My heart breaks on their behalf," Australia's chef de mission Alisa Camplin-Warner said.
"Unfortunately, with winter sport, injuries happen along the way," she said.
"With 53 athletes doing relatively high-risk sports, it's not something that's unusual, I'm afraid to say."
Australian former world champion Laura Peel also suffered a knee injury last week in training.
And fellow freestyle skier Daisy Thomas was ruled out of an event on Saturday after crashing during practice.
J.Schmid--BP
