Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris underwent two surgeries over the weekend of March 25 following a severe accident while snowboarding in the backcountry near Whistler, B.C.
Described as a “freak accident” by his brother Craig, McMorris sustained a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, in addition to fractures on his jaw, left arm, pelvis and ribs as a result of missing his mark while jumping off of a large feature in the backcountry.
McMorris is currently recovering in Vancouver General Hospital.
According to his brother, McMorris hurled himself only a matter of feet from his desired landing to find himself touching down into a section of trees. Craig went on to mention that his brother was conscious and communicating while waiting nearly an hour and a half for search and rescue to arrive on the scene to then airlift him away.
Canada Snowboard Team Physician, Doctor Rodney J. French, reported that although both of McMorris’ surgeries went well, “it is too early to speculate on a timeline for Mark’s recovery.”
Executive Director of Canada Snowboard, Patrick Jarvis, commented that he believed Mark will be prepared to make a comeback to competition leading into the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018.
This injury officially concludes what had been labeled a successful return to competition after shattering his femur in another freak accident he suffered only a year and one month prior at Air + Style LA. Following that injury recovering and rehabilitation, McMorris found himself winning the Dew Tour Slopestyle Pro Competition, three X Games Medals, two World Cup titles and the Slopestyle event at the Burton US Open.
Now, an all-new countdown clock is ticking as McMorris prepares to repeat that process once more in time to defend his Olympic Bronze medal in snowboard slopestyle as well as compete in the debut of Big Air during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games program.
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