Rescuers give medical assistance to France's Nils Alphand after he crashed during a downhill training in Crans-Montana

Crans-Montana (Switzerland) (AFP) - French skier Nils Alphand was evacuated by helicopter after he was knocked out Friday when he fell during a World Cup training run in Crans Montana, Switzerland.

After the 28-year-old fell about 50 seconds into his downhill run, emergency staff put Alphand in a neck brace. He was placed on a stretcher, winched up into a helicopter and flown to a hospital in Sion.

There the diagnosis was encouraging.

“Having lost consciousness, he underwent a body scan, which turned out to be normal. Nils will nevertheless be kept under observation,” said the French Ski Federation.

The son of three-time downhill World Cup champion, Luc Alphand, Nils Alphand had been the best of the French team in the first training session at Crans Montana on Thursday, clocking 17th, in preparation for the downhill on Saturday and the super-G on Sunday

It marks the latest in a series of serious accidents on the World Cup circuit this year and the fourth to hit the French.

Their leading skier Cyprien Sarrazin suffered a serious head injury in December. That was followed by season-ending injuries to team-mates Blaise Giezendanner and Alexis Pinturault.

American Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a perforated pelvis, impaling herself as she crashed in a giant slalom in Vermont in November while Czech Tereza Nova was this week woken from the artificial coma she had been placed in after crashing in downhill training at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany in January.