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A Finnish olympic freestyle skier lost control and crashed into a camera man during his halfpipe qualifying round of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Jon Sallinen, 21, crashed during both of his halfpipe qualifying runs on Thursday (February 17), the first of which resulted in him drifting out and colliding with the nearby cameraman, as shown in the video below.
Sallinen later attempted a second run, which resulted in him falling once again and having to walk up the halfpipe to get his ski poles, which were airborne during the crash.
“Sometimes if you mess up the takeoff like I did right there, that’s the worst outcome,” Sallinen said via the AP. “I was lucky not to land on my head and then maybe get a little cushion from the camera guy. ... I hope he’s all good.
“At the same time, I landed straight on my collarbone and I felt some movement, heard some cracking in there. I hope it’s not broken, but it’s really painful right now.”
Sallinen scored an 18 out of 100 for the first round and a total score of 18.5, finishing last out of all 23 competitors in the freestyle halfpipe competition.
It has not been confirmed whether the cameraman -- who managed to get back to his feet after the crash -- experienced any injuries in relation to the accident.
New Zealand's Ben Harrington also took a scary fall during the halfpipe qualifier, which briefly left him motionless for a moment, according to the AP.
Fellow New Zealand countryman Nico Porteous was participating in his post-qualifying round interviews when he noticed his teammate had crashed and jumped over the barriers to check on him.
“That’s the worst thing that can ever happen, seeing your teammate and friend go down,” said Porteous, who finished second in qualifying, via the AP.
Fortunately, Harrington -- who finished 13th in qualifying -- was able to get up after the crash.