Jeffrey Caplan
It was easily one of the scarier moments at the Winter Olympics when Canadian skier Chris Del Bosco flew off a jump, lost control mid-air and crashed to the ground.
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Competing in the final of the men’s ski cross 1/8, Del Bosco went high in the air, flipped and landed on his right side. The three-time Olympian remained on the ground for 10 minutes as medics attended to him. He was then carefully loaded onto a stretcher, CBC Sports reports.
He is now in stable condition, likely with a pelvic injury, Dr. Bob McCormack, Chief Medical Officer for Team Canada, confirmed to CBC Sports. In a positive sign, Del Bosco gave a thumbs-up to the crowd as a snowmobile carefully took him away from the scene of the crash.
#TeamCanada’s Chris Del Bosco of #Vail waves to cheering crowd from medical sled after absolutely nasty crash on #skicross course. He was advocating for course changes in training so skiers didn’t send too deep off the jumps. He sent way past the transition. Ugly ugly crash. pic.twitter.com/YSWuIU9Y6x
— Jason ☀️ Blevins (@jasonblevins) February 21, 2018
On the second-to-last jump of the race, Del Bosco was in last place and tried to use the momentum of the leap to fling himself into qualifying position. But while in mid-air he lost control and balance, and he fell awkwardly on his right side.
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Del Bosco was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., but is now a resident of Montreal. He finished fourth in the men’s 1/8 at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and he was looking to win his first Olympic medal this time around.
Horrific crash for #CAN's Chris Del Bosco as he tries to make a desperate push in one of the final jumps.
More to come. pic.twitter.com/843XlqaEm4
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 21, 2018
Prayers go out to Canadian freestyle skier, Chris Del Bosco in this horrific fall #Pyeongyang2018 pic.twitter.com/E3yzPdAjdd
— February’s Own (@Alisviews) February 21, 2018
Del Bosco was the third athlete of the event to leave the course on a medical sled. France’s Terence Tchiknavorian seemingly sustained a right leg injury during an unsteady jump landing; Austrian Christoph Wahrstoetter and Swede Erik Mobaerg collided with each other, after which the former was left stuck in a fence.
