Canada's Mark McMorris crashes during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

LIVIGNO, Italy — Canada’s three-time Olympic bronze-medal snowboarder Mark McMorris crashed Wednesday night during big air training for the Milan Cortina Games and had to be taken off the course on a stretcher.

The 32-year-old McMorris, making his fourth appearance at the Olympics, was getting ready for Thursday night’s qualifying, set for about 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

Officials from Canada’s snowboard team did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press asking about McMorris’ condition.

In big air, riders do four, five or more spins after taking off from a ramp that in Livigno is more than 50 meters (165 feet) tall and built on scaffolding.

McMorris won all of his Olympic medals and eight of his 12 X Games titles in slopestyle; the other four X gold medals came in big air, which was added to the Olympic program in 2018.

He suffered life-threatening injuries after slamming into a tree during a backcountry ride in 2017. He has had a rod placed in his leg, a plate in his arm and another in his jaw as the result of that and numerous other injuries he’s endured over the years.

Last month, he told the AP that he was in good health heading into the first Olympics in his 30s.

Games begin

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The 2026 Winter Olympics opened competition Wednesday night with the first curling matches on the schedule in Cortina only for the action to come to a brief halt because of a power outage.

Officials paused the matches at the historic curling stadium when the lights dimmed and flickered and the main lights and heat in a nearby media center went out. Curlers kept sliding on the ice to stay ready and fans cheered when the bright lights came back soon after and play resumed.

Olympic organizers acknowledged the “brief interruption to competition due to an energy-related issue” and noted it lasted approximately three minutes. It snowed steadily all day in Cortina, with more than 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) in some places. The start of the opening luge training session for men’s singles was also delayed a half-hour due to the outage.

The eight teams playing mixed doubles opened the long curling tournament two full days before the opening ceremony.

Starting earlier?

MILAN — Staging future Winter Games as early as January and the Paralympic Winter Games in February is a possibility because of the effects of warmer temperatures, the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday.

Every Winter Games medal was won in February since the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics opened Jan. 29, and moving to January would likely disrupt scheduling of storied World Cup races and events. It also would more directly clash with NFL and NBA schedules.

The IOC is now reviewing Olympic Games issues in the first year of Kirsty Coventry’s presidency and changing the winter edition dates is an option.

“Maybe we are also discussing to bring the Winter Olympics a little bit earlier,” the IOC member overseeing the sports program review, Karl Stoss, told reporters. “To do it in January because it has an implication for the Paralympics as well.”

The Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games will be held March 6-15.

The IOC has long acknowledged under Coventry’s predecessor Thomas Bach that changing climate is a challenge for finding future hosts and organizing competitions.

“(March) is very late because the sun is strong enough to melt the snow,” said Stoss, whose home country Austria is a traditional power in Alpine skiing and ski jumping.

“Maybe the Paralympics will be in February and the other edition will be in January. That would also be a part of our discussion,” he said on the sidelines of the IOC’s eve-of-Olympics meeting in Milan.

The 100-plus IOC members met later Wednesday for another round of talks in the review program Coventry called “Fit For The Future.”

Coventry said at a news conference “there are potentially going to be needs for us to look at adjustments of times,” to schedule future Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. “That might be a way if we bumped things forward.”

IOC members are set to meet again in June to decide on the Olympic reviews, and whether to add new sports and events to the 2030 French Alps Winter Games.

The French Alps edition is currently expected to run Feb. 1-17 and the 2034 Utah Winter Games from Feb. 10-26.