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USA Today reports "Norwegian snowboarder Torstein Horgmo, a medal contender in slopestyle, is out of the Olympics after breaking his collarbone on a training run Monday.
"Falls are part of our sport, but the timing is awfully bad," Horgmo said, according to a translation of a release from Norway's press office."
Transworld Snowboarding reports, "Torstein’s injury prompted criticism from riders who wanted to see some changes in the course to make it safer. When asked about the course design, Finnish rider Roope Tonteri said “It looks pretty sketchy, the rail are sticky. I think they wanted to make big kickers, and it’s not really good for riders, and it’s not really safe. I just don’t want to get injured. It’s not a really fun course to ride.”
Some riders were also concerned that the jumps were too steep, forcing course builder Anders Forsell and his crew to trim the tops of the jumps and smooth out the transitions."
Damn, there's some eerie foreshadowing for you!
In a year that has seen the level of competive snowboarding reach both incredible and frustrating heights, this comes as a huge blow to those of us who were really looking forward to Torstein's unique brand of snowboarding – featuring, gasp!, actual style over a "spin to win" attitude – provide a rare counterpoint to the triple-cork circus slopestyle has seem to become. Torstein has also been one of the few top-level riders to speak out against this type of riding, as well as the stagnant nature of the slopestyle course's evolution.
