By Jack Tarrant
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) – British snowboarding hope Katie Ormerod was ruled out of the Pyeongchang Olympics on Thursday after fracturing her wrist and heel in training falls.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) said in a statement that the 20-year-old had suffered a severe fracture to her right heel bone in a fall on Thursday and would undergo emergency surgery.
She fractured her wrist after slipping off a rail in training on Wednesday.
Ormerod posted a photograph of herself in a cast before the surgery on her Instagram page.
“Yesterday sucked!” Ormerod wrote in the photos caption.
“After dreaming of competing at the Olympics for years, I finally got there and received the most bad luck I’ve ever had!
“Words can’t describe how gutted I am but thank you to everyone for all your support and kind words!!”
Ormerod’s cousin Jamie Nicholls is also competing for Britain in the slopestyle and big air and was one of the first to send his well-wishes to Ormerod.
“I am proud of you,” Nicholls said in a tribute to Ormerod on social media.
“Get well soon little cousin and will try ride my best for ya!”
Ormerod was due to compete in snowboard slopestyle and big air and was one of Britain’s small band of medal hopes for the Games that start on Friday.
“We are all devastated for Katie who was in strong form coming into the Olympics. She is a talented athlete and wonderful role model,” said British ski and snowboard performance director Dan Hunt.
Ormerod last year became the first Briton to win a World Cup big air title. She was also third in slopestyle at the 2016 X Games in Aspen.
Britain has set a ‘best ever’ target of at least five medals from Pyeongchang after more than doubling funding since Sochi four years ago.
Britain won four medals in Sochi, the country’s best haul since 1924.
(Additional reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis/Greg Stutchbury)
