Norway’s Torstein Horgmo has suffered an injury during practice for the Olympic Games in Sochi which appears to have ruled him out of the men’s slopestyle competition.

Horgmo was attempting a hardway backside 270 on the first rail section when he hooked up and landed heavily on the staircase, with his shoulder bearing the brunt of the impact. Medics quickly carried him down the slope on a stretcher and early reports in Norway suggest x-rays have revelealed multiple collarbone fractures.

Torstein was the first snowboarder in the world to land a triple cork – which has become a ‘must have’ trick for this year’s Olympic Games – and his effortless style (alongside some amusing web shows) has made him a firm favourite within the scene. Nevertheless, he has struggled to nail back-to-back triples (which many are predicting will be needed for gold in Sochi) and the injury caps a miserable week in which he failed to make the podium at the X Games in Aspen.

Whether the course is a little sketchy or it was just bad luck, the inaugural slopestyle event will be worse off now that it’s missing one of the biggest names in snowboarding. We wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.