Wild scenes as Olympic star lands on cameraman in trick gone wrong

When broadcasters say they’ll take fans closer than ever before to the action, it’s fairly certain this is not what they had in mind.

Finland’s Jon Sallinen has had a shocker of an Olympic men’s freeski half-pipe competition in Beijing, finishing dead last and landing one of the bloopers of the Olympics, when he took out a cameraman in a trick gone wrong.

The 21-year-old was in his first run in the half-pipe but it all went wrong at the halfway point.

Coming in backwards, it all went wrong as it caught the edge of one of his skis and jumped out of the pipe.

He ended up nailing the camera and the cameraman, and sending him reeling away from the exchange.

Channel 7 commentators Mitch Tomlinson and Ryan Tiene said “respect to the cameraman for holding that shot”.

Can’t say he wasn’t close to the action. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

The cameraman did well to hold on. Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP

They were ugly scenes on the half-pipe. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Channel 7 host Emma Freedman said the camera operator must have missed the briefing and got a little too close to the action.

“Good news is, Jon and the camera operator are okay, not sure about the camera. They may need a new lens for that maybe going forward.”

It was just the start of not a great day for Sallinen.

The first run scored just 18.00 while his second run scored just 18.50.

The conditions weren’t as good as they had been most of the week as the snow came in and Sallinen said the conditions played a factor.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was gonna ski on my second run after my crash, I hope the cameraman is OK, I landed directly on him,” Sallinen said.

It was a tough day for all the competitors as even the USA’s Aaron Blunck, who topped the scoreboard with a score of 92.00, only managed 26.25 with his first attempt.

New Zealand’s Nico Porteous qualified seconds while Americans Birk Irving and David Wise rounded out the top four.

There were terrifying scenes earlier when New Zealand’s Ben Harrington, who laid down a 69.25 to be 10th after his first run, had a similar issue to Sallinen.

Coming in reverse, Harrington lost control and landed hard on his back on the lip of the half-pipe.

Glad he’s OK. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

“Ben Harrington just had all our hearts in our mouths then,” Tomlinson said.

“That fall was insane. To be walking away from that (I am stunned).

“We are so glad that our Kiwi brother is alright after that fall.”

The New Zealand Olympic team said he was “okay” after the crash.

To rub salt in the wounds, he finished 13th as the top 12 went into the finals.