Ireland's skeleton slider Sean Greenwood underwent a CT scan and MRI at the mountain hospital in Krasnaya Polyana last night after losing control of his sled during his second run at the Sanki Sliding Centre.
Greenwood, who grew up in Canada but has an Irish passport through his Galway mother, got up too high at one of the corners and partially flipped over at a speed of 119km per hour.
Placed last
He somehow managed to regain control to finish out his run but placed last of the 27 competitors. There is a third run today at 2pm Irish time but as of late last night, Irish chef de mission Stephen Martin couldn't say whether Greenwood would take his place.
“Sean is fine overall, he has some bumps and bruises,” said Martin. “We’ve not even really gone there yet in terms of whether he’ll compete tomorrow. We want to get him some food, some sleep and take it from there. It’s not until six in the evening so we don’t have to make a decision on it too quickly.
“We took him to hospital just to make sure there were no breakages or anything like that. The main thing is that he’s fine. He’s just disappointed at how it went.
“It was incredible for him to manage to get back onto the skeleton at the speed he was going. For him to finish out the run shows what he’s made of.”
Greenwood had finished in 21st place after the opening run and went into the second in good spirits. There were edges to be smoothed out after that first run – a couple of times he bumped the sides of the run with his shoulders on a track that all competitors agreed was running faster than it had in practice.
Partially flip
But trouble looked to be brewing for Greenwood about halfway down the track when he veered up to the right going around a bend. That fed into the next corner, causing him to bump into the top of the track and partially flip to land on his left arm.
He managed to keep hold of his sled, however, and allowed the momentum of his run to carry him the rest of the way and across the line. His finishing time of 2:03.10 was six seconds slower than the second-last slider, Ander Mirambell of Spain.
Earlier, cross-country skier Jan Rossiter finished 82nd in the 15km classic at the Laura Stadium. Rossiter, a respiratory therapist from Canada whose father comes from Clonmel, finished 10:14.9 behind Swiss winner Dario Cologna.
