Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris says big air crash knocked him out, but he's ready for slopestyle

Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris said he's "coming around and starting to feel like myself again" after suffering a concussion and pelvic injuries during a nasty fall in training on the big air course before the Milan Cortina Olympics started.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, McMorris said he lost consciousness when he fell eight days earlier during training for the contest that opened the action at Livigno Snow Park last week.

"We've been doing a lot of different tests and taking all the necessary steps to make sure I'm in good shape," he said. "I'm thankful to have passed all those tests and, at the end of the day, to be feeling good and feeling confident to get back out there."

The 32-year-old McMorris, winner of bronze medals in slopestyle at the last three Olympics, said he checked out the slopestyle course Thursday and will move forward with his training this week. Slopestyle qualifying for the snowboarders is set for next Monday.

Even though the injury knocked him out of big air, he said "very much so" when asked if his goals for slopestyle were still in tact. McMorris won his 12th X Games title last month and is considered at the top of the list of medal contenders.

The dangers of snowboarding have been in plain view at these Olympics, the biggest stage for a sport full of daredevils who fly dozens of feet in the air and go off-axis with jumps and flips. The injury suffered by McMorris, one of the sport's most popular and successful figures, cast a shadow over the opening days of action in Livigno.

In women's halfpipe qualifying Wednesday, China's Liu Jiayu suffered a grisly fall when she caught an edge on her landing at the bottom of the course. Her head snapped to the ground and the