From the ICU to the podium: The journey of Mark McMorris

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From the ICU to the podium: The journey of Mark McMorris

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21 Feb 2018

Posted by Paul Dayboll

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By AUSTIN BROAD
Columnist

Snowboarder Mark McMorris won the bronze medal in Men’s Slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics SUBMITTED PHOTO

Mark McMorris is more than an amazing snowboarder. He is a Canadian icon.

McMorris is an Olympian, the former bronze medallist (2014) has won numerous medals at the X-Games, and can add another olympic medal to his trophy case.
McMorris took third place in the Men’s Slopestyle snowboarding event at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The 24-year-old almost died in March of 2017 after crashing into a tree.

He spent time in the Vancouver intensive care unit recovering.

Now less than a year later he is an Olympic medallist, and a role model who all Canadians can draw inspiration from.

The Canadian has become one of the faces of snowboarding, rivalling American superstar Shaun White for one of the most famous athletes in the sport.

McMorris is the greatest Canadian story of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Anyone who looks at what he accomplished in Pyeongchang can’t help but be inspired.

He may not have won the gold medal, he may not have been the highest-ranked Canadian in the event (Max Parrot took home the silver medal) but McMorris, in my view, is the Canadian hero of the Olympics.

He should be praised for what he accomplished and in my opinion he should be Canada’s flag bearer at the closing ceremonies.

In March of 2017 McMorris suffered a fractured jaw, left arm, ribs and pelvis on top of a ruptured spleen and collapsed left lung, and managed to recover and qualify for the Olympics less than a year later.

Only special athletes can win medals at the Olympics.

And it takes an amazing athlete to finish among the best in the world, and McMorris did just that.

But McMorris redefined what it means to be an amazing athlete.

He went from a Vancouver ICU to the Olympic podium in under a year, no one else in his sport can say that.

McMorris is not only the Canadian story of the Olympics, he is the story of the entire 2018 Olympic games regardless of what happens between now and Feb. 25.