A Swiss bobsleigh competitor has withdrawn from the Olympic two-man and four-man bobsleigh competitions after two practice crashes at the Whistler mountains venue. It's unclear whether the Swiss driver Daniel Schmid was hurt in the second crash, but his brakeman, Juerg Egger, was injured when their two man sled overturned on the track and he was taken away from the scene by ambulance.

A statement said a decision had been jointly made by the Swiss team and bobsled officials for Schmid to withdraw from the competition for safety reasons.

His withdrawal leaves the Swiss with only one of their three two-man sleds in the field.

There are serious concerns about the safety of the track as prior to Schmid's crash, another Swiss driver and gold medal favourite Beat Hefti, withdrew from the two-man because of a concussion sustained in a crash on Wednesday. His crash was one of eight during the first training session.