Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris out of hospital after training crash

Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris is out of hospital and said to be "feeling good" following a crash during big air training on Wednesday night at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Games.

Brendan Matthews, Canada Snowboard's vice-president of business development and partnerships, said the 32-year-old from Regina was taken to hospital late Wednesday and released soon after.

McMorris, who won bronze medals in slopestyle in each of his three previous Olympics, spent the night at the Olympic Village.

"He's up this morning. He's feeling good," Matthews said Thursday, just metres away from the big air slope where McMorris went down.

"He'll go through routine testing with our medical team in the Village today [Thursday] and they'll make a decision by 4 o'clock local time this afternoon on whether or not he can go for big air [qualifying] tonight."

Qualifying was scheduled for Thursday evening in Livigno with the final on Saturday.

Concerns were raised when McMorris was taken away on a stretcher but Matthews said that was routine after such falls. Still Matthews said it was worrying at the time.

"It always looks scary when someone takes a hard fall like that, but all things considered it's good news," said Matthews.

He called it a "freak accident," saying McMorris actually landed the trick he was attempting when it happened. He just caught some loose snow with his heel edge and had a "hard fall."

"In our sport, we like to call it a 'snow snake' that comes up and bites you out of nowhere," Matthews added. "Just a little bit of loose snow that was on the slope. Nobody's fault but unfortunately these things happen in an extreme sport like ours."

Should the decision be to withhold McMorris from big air qualifying, he would still be