One-on-one with the snowboard slopestyle star
Regina’s Mark McMorris has one objective with the men’s snowboard slopestyle final is held Saturday: “To win a gold medal.” Now battling back from a broken rib suffered in the X-Games, he spoke to Postmedia’s Bev Wake about his rise in the sport.
Q: You’re originally from Regina, where there’s a notable absence of mountains. How did you end up getting into this sport?
A: My parents liked to go skiing and snowboarding and I was in to skateboarding at age 4 already and I went snowboarding for the first time at age 5 and we did a couple, every now and then, mountain trips. And when I was 10, the Saskatchewan Snowboard Association started, and I was headed out to Calgary. We were driving every weekend to (Canadian Olympic Park) and I was riding out there and taking advantage of the train because I loved it so much and that’s all I wanted to do was become better and better at snowboarding and the feeling of progressing is hard to explain, but that’s why I chose snowboard. Whenever you learn something new it just keeps the interest levels high. I have so much fun snowboarding, it’s just a freedom sport. I played extremely competitive hockey until I was 13 or 14 and then I had to make a choice. And somebody telling me to skate lines wasn’t as fun as going out and doing flips and having fun with my friends on a snowboard hill and now I travel the world with my friends, with fans all over the world, competing and having the best time. So I’ve learned to never take it for granted and to just enjoy it, for sure.
Q: When did you get to the point where you realized this sport was about more than going out and having fun with your friends on the hill, that you could actually be the best in the world at it?
A: I hadn’t ever won that much money until I was 15 and my parents came out to an event and it was my first World Cup, in Calgary. And I won and they gave me $15,000 in cash, and I was like ‘what the heck?’ And my mom kind of just said ‘I guess he can do this.’ And from there on out, I was just like trying to consistently win and make the podium, and having fun, and it just happened all so fast. And now it’s my life, it’s weird. I just never figured I’d get to that level, it was just so far out from where I lived and so far-fetched, then it just happened. I worked to get to a level where I was good enough to ride.
Q: You won a gold medal at the XGames in 2012, which historically has been the ultimate achievement in your sport. How do the Olympics compare?
A: X-Games is awesome, a really huge televised event, a lot of action-sport lovers watch it or anybody that has any interest in it pays attention. But the Olympics are something my Grandma watches with her friends, probably, you know? It’s like everybody knows about the Olympics, it’s on such a greater scale. When I go to events I compete for Canada but I’m not with Canada. At the Olympics, it will be such a great thing. For me being at the top of the sport, getting slopestyle in, a lot of people look at you to win, so there’s pressure. I never thought I’d think about an event over a year out, but (it’s been)
‘I’m glad, glad, to go to an Olympics and represent Canada’
MARK McMORRIS
on my mind every day and I’m doing everything I can to ... win and that’s all I want to do. I’m glad, glad, to go to an Olympics and represent Canada.
Q: Were you already competing when slopestyle was added to the Olympics or did that happen afterwards?
A: No, I already had a career going and I was a professional snowboarder. We had heard rumours that it would get in. It was weird that it wasn’t in, because when you go to any hill in the world, they all have jumps and rails and maybe there’s two hills in Canada, and five in North America that have half-pipes. Nobody rides halfpipes. If you go to them it’s a ghost town, everybody’s at the jumps and rails. It just had to happen and here we are at the Olympics.
Q: Does it put any additional pressure on you, knowing it’s the first time slopestyle will be in the Games and there’s an effort to really showcase the sport?
A: I don’t feel pressure like that because I know it’s so exciting to watch. Who doesn’t want to watch video games in real life? It’s just flipping all over the place, finesse, style, aggression. I think it’s just like really cool. Halfpipe was one of the most viewed sports in Vancouver and I know slopestyle will be right up there and it’s going to have a great debut I hope, and I just hope to perform at the level I know I can perform at.
Q: You’ve won two gold medals in slopestyle at the X-Games. Does this give you more confidence heading into Sochi?
A: Yeah, confidence, and it adds a lot more pressure to me, too, because people are looking at you to do well at the Olympics. But it’s kind of cool.
Q: You guys travel up to 80 feet in the air while doing all these twists and turns on a downhill slope. How do you wrap your head around that? And the danger of doing that?
A: It’s like anything, you just become so used to it. How do race car drivers not freak out, you know? And how don’t they crash? We just become technically advanced and air awareness is a huge part of our sport and knowing how much time you have until you hit the ground. It’s sort of like we have to train ourselves to be like cats.
Q: If you weren’t a snowboarder, what would you be doing?
A: I’d probably want to be either a skateboarder or surfer or baseball player or a hockey player, I don’t know. They all seem like so much fun.
Q: What’s the toughest thing about training?
A: I hate the gym and I didn’t get into snowboarding to go to the gym, but I have to go because I like snowboarding and it’s going to allow me to snowboard longer. So I have to play that through my head every time I go to the gym.
Q: Is there any music you listen to before you compete or during training to get you in the right zone?
A: I listen to a lot of hip hop and bluegrass music. It’s kind of different styles, but I’m really into them. I don’t necessarily ride contests with earbuds in, but I’ll listen to it before I have to go compete. It’s just stuff that helps me focus, but I really love music, like everybody I think. Q: Any guilty pleasures? A: Love me some five-cent candies.