Audio By Carbonatix
Here’s some inspiring news snowboarders around the world have been waiting for: Kevin Pearce officially checked out of Craig Hospital this week, four months after suffering a traumatic brain injury in the halfpipe on December 31. He’ll remain in Colorado for a few weeks of outpatient treatment, but is expected to return to his home in Vermont at the end of the month.
Even more inspiring: Dr. Alan Weintraub, medical director of the brain injury program at Craig Hospital, says Pearce will ride again.
“I don’t know that he’ll be doing halfpipes, because we don’t want him
to hit his head,” said Dr. Alan Weintraub, medical director of the
brain injury program at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo. “But he’s
going to snowboard. I can pretty much guarantee it.”
Pearce and Shaun White are teammates on the Burton Snowboards team,
and prior to the accident Pearce had been a favorite to challenge White
for the gold medal in Vancouver. He fell during a training run in Utah,
practicing a variation on the double cork spin that White used to
propel his way to the top of the podium.
