Canadian snowboard legend Mark McMorris knows Olympic victory carries special meaning

german mark McMorris is a 12-time Super trough defend.

His in style(p) triumph — a gold medal in slopestyle on Sunday at the X Games, which he calls the “action sports Super Bowl” — also marked his 25th time standing on the podium, a winter-athlete record.

A legend in the sport any way you slice it, the Regina native will now enter the Milano-Cortina Olympics as the lone male athlete on the slopestyle side who also competed in 2014, the first time the discipline was contested at the Games.

McMorris has come home with bronze in each instance since.

So what would a gold medal mean this time around for the 32-year-old?

“Oh, I mean, that would be the ultimate treat, or icing on the cake, if you will,” McMorris said. “But at the end of the day, in a judged sport, all I can push for is to ride to the best of my ability and at the end of day I try not to get hung up on anything besides that and just enjoy the moment, ride strong and focus mainly on that.”

For snowboarders like McMorris, who picked up the sport competitively before it was even in the Olympics, these Games are not necessarily the be-all, end-all of a career.

They do, however, play a certain role.

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“Not everyone’s grandma knows about the X Games, but they sure as hell know about the Olympics,” he said. “That’s kind of a quote I use.”

While the X Games can certainly provide the requisite stage for an athlete to launch himself into the wider consciousness — think skateboarder Nyjah Huston, or dual-sport athlete Shaun White — there is no theatre quite like the Olympics.

And so McMorris won’t be taking anything for granted when he steps into the start gate at the Livigno Snow Park for the big air competition beginning with qualifications on Feb. 5, and then again toward the end of the Olympics for slopestyle qualifications on Feb. 15. The medal rounds take place two days later in each instance.

“It's just a great opportunity for more eyes to be on the sport. So you can look at it from a bunch of different angles. But I always looked at it like this is a great opportunity to reach a broader audience and I felt what that can do by having success at the Olympic Games and it's helped me become a household name in Canada and I’m thankful for what the Olympics have done for my career,” McMorris said.

X Games legend Mark McMorris wins snowboard slopestyle gold for 25th medal of career

Four years ago, at those COVID-marred Beijing Olympics, McMorris left the slopestyle competition feeling unsatisfied.

McMorris earned bronze while Canadian teammate Max Parrot took home gold, but he claimed in the days after that Parrot made a mistake that judges missed, which he said should have elevated his spot on the podium.

He later apologized and went on to place 10th in big air. It was a reminder of the consequences of those Olympics eyeballs — your grandma might not appreciate someone who could be perceived as a sore loser.

But McMorris seems clear-headed heading into Milan. He said he doesn’t feel like he has anything to prove.

“I’ve had a wonderful career, a long career. I’m very proud of the work I've done and the way I've been able to keep it going. But I always want more and you always strive for more and push for more,” he said.

Coming out of Beijing, McMorris wasn’t sure what his Olympic future would hold.

A new generation of Canadian snowboarders, including the likes of Liam Brearley and fellow Olympic Cam Spalding, were on the rise.

McMorris’ generation, meanwhile, was fading. But it isn’t easy to let go of a career made in the mountains.

“It was so far away and so much water to go under the bridge before then that I wasn't thinking about, but as the Olympics get closer and closer, you start to think about it and scheme up and dream up,” McMorris said. “And I was definitely in the last year focused on working my butt off to make it to a fourth Olympics.”

Now, here he is. And as the last male slopestyle athlete remaining from his Olympic debut, the question is whether Milan — and, specifically, the hill of Livigno, which he called a “special place” — will double as his swan song.

“Oh man, it’s hard to say,” McMorris said. “I didn’t know if I’d go to another one and here I am pushing super hard and totally riding at the level that needs to be ridden at. So I don’t want to make any claims now. And there’s gonna be potentially some new events in the next Olympics, so I don’t want to close that door quite yet. So I’m just going to focus on this for now.”

As his X Games proved, it’s not like McMorris is washed up as an athlete either. He beat out a pair of fellow Olympians in Norway’s Marcus Kleveland, who took silver, and American Red Gerard, who snagged bronze, to stand atop the podium.

Another gold medal in the coming weeks may not feel like a Super Bowl title. 

It would be something much bigger.

“I'm definitely in a different stage in my career and life. I feel like it's kind of a bonus that I'm going to a fourth. … I feel like that’s pretty special thing in its own and a testament to my longevity,” McMorris said. 

“But, I mean, the mindset is still let’s go and ride to the best of my ability and try and peak at the right time.”

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