German ski cross chief urges changes for next Games after crashes

Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - Germany‘s ski cross sport director called Friday for the course to be toned down for the 2022 Olympics after several bad crashes in snowboard and freestyle cross events in Pyeongchang."I will fight to see that we don‘t experience it again like this, but nicer, in four years," Heli Herdt said.Herdt, who had warned earlier in the Games against the trend to make runs increasingly more spectacular, said he would be taking the issue up with the international ski federation FIS.There have been a series of crashes and serious injuries in the snowboard and freestyle ski cross events.Canadian ski crosser Chris Del Bosco suffered a fractured pelvis, four rib fractures and bruising to the lung in crashing Wednesday in the men‘s freestyle ski cross finals.On Friday, fellow Canadian India Sherrett took a hard fall in the women‘s finals and was taken to hospital, where team officials said she was in a "stable" condition with unspecified injuries.Frenchman Terence Tchiknavorian suffered a broken leg and Austria‘s Christoph Wahrstoetter concussion in the men‘s freeystyle ski cross finals, while Austrian Markus Schairer sustained a fracture of the fifth cervical vertebra and an elbow injury in snowboard cross.