[freddystone]

The snowboarder Kevin Pearce remained in intensive care, in critical but stable condition, at a Salt Lake City hospital two days after sustaining a severe head injury while training in the halfpipe at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort.

Dr. Holly Ledyard of the University of Utah hospital said in a statement that Pearce had a “severe traumatic brain injury.” She added: “He is intubated and being kept sedated. The focus over the next week will be watching for any swelling in his brain and keeping his brain pressure normal. Kevin has a long recovery ahead of him.”

Pearce, a 22-year-old from Norwich, Vt., was a favorite to make the ultra-competitive United States Olympic team. On Thursday, while practicing a difficult trick (a cab double cork, a sort of twisting double back flip, that Pearce has landed before), he struck his forehead on the icy wall of the halfpipe. Despite wearing a helmet, he was knocked unconscious and evacuated by helicopter to Salt Lake City.

Pearce is one of the few riders to have beaten 2006 Olympic gold medalist Shaun White in head-to-head competition the past couple of years. His father, Simon Pearce, is a well-known glass maker and retailer.

http://vancouver2010.blogs.nytimes.c...-ahead-of-him/