Austrian Snowboarder Breaks Neck In Terrifying Olympic Crash; Still Finishes Race

SNOWBOARD star Markus Schairer suffers a sickening neck break after bashing his head against the ground - but amazingly goes onto finish the race.

Schairer was examined at a nearby hospital shortly after the contest concluded, where the Austrian Olympic committee ruled he had broken the fifth cervical vertebrae in his neck.

Austrian snowboarder Markus Schairer somehow escaped serious and long-term damage after a horror crash in the quarter-finals of the Snowboard Cross in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The Winter Olympics have been criticised in recent days for competing through the windy conditions and, yesterday, a Japanese snowboarder suffered a shocking crash in the finals of the men's halfpipe competition.

As he and his fellow contestants came into land after a jump, Schairer lost his balance, landing on his neck and breaking his fifth cervical vertebra.

He will now return home to Austria for medical treatment.

Schairer will return to Austria with medical assistance.

Schairer was in fourth place before his fall, The Washington Post reported, and had hurt his elbow in a crash during an earlier run.

In December 2013, Schairer tore four ligaments in his shoulder and fractured a joint during training in Canada, according to his Olympic bio.

The following year, he earned silver in a snowboard cross event at the 2008 Winter X Games XII in Aspen, Colorado.