The National Times - Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck

Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck


Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck
Australian Olympic snowboarder airlifted to hospital with broken neck / Photo: © AFP

Australian snowboarder Cam Bolton was airlifted to hospital with two neck fractures following a fall in training and is out of the Winter Olympics.

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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.

S.Collins--TNT