Max Parrot captured Canada’s first gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics in men’s snowboard slopestyle on Monday.
Parrot dominated the slope alongside teammate Mark McMorris, who won bronze. It’s the second straight Olympics that Parrot and McMorris have shared the podium in the event.
A native of Bromont, Que., Parrot’s gold-medal win is an upgrade from his silver at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games. His win came three years after he underwent chemotherapy to treat Hodgkinʼs lymphoma.
“I had no more muscles, no more energy, no more cardio. I remember I was drawn by my treatments,” said Parrot, with a Canadian flag draped over his shoulders.
“I almost wanted to quit sometimes because it was getting so hard just to get to the next morning. To be standing here three years later and winning gold, that is completely crazy.”
McMorris, from Regina, has won bronze now at three Olympics.
“Definitely was anticipating a bit higher of a score,” he said.
“But sometimes when you finish a run, you don’t really recall some of the little bobbles you had or whatnot.”
During the event, Parrot scored 90.96 on a dominant second run, challenging his competitors to catch him. McMorris had the best score of the third run at 88.53 points, but it wasn’t enough to catch his teammate.
China’s Su Yiming, who had the best score in qualifying, took silver with 88.70.
Sebastien Toutant of L’Assomption, Que., was ninth with a score of 54.00. Toutant won gold in the big air event in 2018, and will defend his title starting Feb. 14.
During Sunday’s qualifying round, McMorris had the second-best score that gave him the penultimate spot in Monday’s final.
— with files from The Canadian Press