The 26-year-old, winner of three gold medals at various Winter X Games and had been considered a leading medal contender, crashed spectacularly on the rail feature of the course at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

After being taken to hospital, it was hoped his injury may be less serious, but he has now been ruled out of the Games following confirmation by Norwegian team officials. 

In a statement team doctor Ellen Moen also explained how, although "the break is simple and will probably take four weeks to heal", it is "nevertheless impossible to train and compete with the injury".

Although the nature of the sport makes crashes inevitable, after only being opened for training today ahead of qualifying action on Thursday (February 6), there has been a flurry of criticism over course safety as the slopestyle event makes its Olympic debut.

The slopestyle course has received criticism from various quarters for being too dangerous after training began today ©Getty Images




Finland's Roope Tonteri argued the course was "not really safe" because of the size of the jumps, while Canada's Sebastien Toutant compared the course to like "jumping out of a building".

In response to these opinions, as well as to Horgmo's crash, officials have vowed improvements will be made ahead of competition getting underway. 

Roberto Moresi, the assistant snowboard race director, told Associated Press organisers had responded to feedback from the athletes and were trimming some jumps at the top of the course "in order to make it more smooth".

Similar sentiments were offered by technical delegate Bill van Gilder, who also played down the nature of the problems.

"It's a common process that the athletes come to a venue and have concerns after the first day of training", he told the BBC.

"Today's features were super-good, they just need a few tweaks to make them even better and the feeling I have is that everyone's 'stoked' with the course".