The badly injured Snowboard Crosser Markus Schairer will be flown back from South Korea to Austria on Saturday with a medical attendant. In the Olympic competition in Bokwang, the 2009 World Champion of 2009 crashed on the runway on Thursday when he landed after a long jump with his back and head on the runway, he broke his fifth cervical vertebrae and sustained an elbow injury.
Neurological impairments have not occurred and consequential damage can currently be ruled out, the Austrian Olympic Committee (ÖOC) announced. Schairer is treated in a clinic near the coastal town of Gangneung.
“Karlheinz Wieser, the press spokesman for the snowboard division in the Austrian Ski Association (ÖSV) told the APA – Austria Press Agency on Friday that he was well taken care of, and ÖOC doctor Klaus Pribitzer was on hand in Bokwang. Supply, removal and cooperation with the local authorities and helpers worked very well, Wieser reported.
The 30-year-old Schairer had been lying down for a long time after the crash, rammed up, buckled the board again and slipped into the finish line. According to Wieser, the athlete there immediately suspected that he could have something to do with the vertebrae.
Schairer will remain in hospital until his flight home. On (now) Friday evening he will be visited by his team-mates Alessandro Hämmerle, Hanno Douschan and Lukas Pachner,”The boys are used to the sport. But if you hurt yourself, everyone will be affected, especially if you work with a team colleague,”said Wieser.
After the competition with numerous crashes, there had been some great criticism from athletes of the powerfully built, fast course in Phoenix Snow Park. It was won by the Frenchman Pierre Vaultier.