CHASING GOLD
Regina’s Mark McMorris begins his quest for Winter X Games gold on Friday.
You could say that Mark McMorris has a bone to pick with the men’s snowboard slopestyle event at the Winter X Games.
During the 2014 competition in Aspen, Colo., McMorris fractured a rib when he hit a rail during his final run. He still finished second, but that snapped his streak of consecutive Winter X Games gold medals at two.
The 21-year-old Regina product will attempt to start a new Winter X Games streak Friday, when the elimination phase of the men’s slopestyle competition is to be held in Aspen. The final is set for Sunday.
“(The goal) is vengeance, for sure,” a chuckling McMorris said recently. “I definitely don’t want to go back and break a rib, but I also don’t want to get second again. I’d like to stand on the top (of the podium), back to where I like to be.
“I’m going to go there and try to fix what happened last year.”
In 2014, McMorris was 12th among 16 riders after the first run of the elimination round. He responded with a score of 92.00 in his second run to move into second place, clinching one of the eight spots in the final round.
There, McMorris scored 95.66 on his second run to take the lead, but Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., put up a 96.33 on his third run to move in front.
McMorris was trying to reclaim the lead when he crashed. He subsequently was treated and released from an Aspen hospital, where X-rays showed he had a fractured rib.
The injury happened less than two weeks before the Winter Olympics began in Sochi, Russia. Slopestyle was to make its Olympic debut in the Games and McMorris was the presumptive favourite — until he hurt his rib.
But he overcame the injury to finish third; his bronze was the first medal Canada won at the Games.
The past year has been a whirlwind of activity for McMorris — and that’s the way he likes it.
“It has kept going and it keeps going in a positive direction,” he said. “It was nice this fall. I bought a home (in California), so that was cool to spend some time there and get that all dialed in.
“It’s been a lot of travelling and a lot of obligations. But it’s fun. I’m living a dream and I hope it doesn’t stop.”
His competition schedule certainly is full.
McMorris opened his season in mid-December at the Dew Tour Mountain Championships in Breckenridge, Colo., where he finished fifth.
After the X Games, he’s scheduled to compete in the European Open (Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 in Laax, Switzerland), the Air + Style competition (Feb. 21 and 22 in Pasadena, Calif.) and the U.S. Open (March 2-7 in Vail, Colo.) — and he’s eager to get back on top.
The mental and physical preparation that went into the Olympic year of 2014 has helped McMorris prepare for the ’15 season as well.
“When you work so hard like that, it’s been hard to stop and go back to maybe not working that hard,” he said. “So I’ve been going full force, trying to get my body in the best condition it can be to hopefully perform well under pressure and in all these events this year.”
That said, McMorris sees a difference between 2014 and 2015.
With no Olympics — arguably the biggest sporting event for any athlete — on the horizon, he has something of a different mindset this year.
“I still really want to win as much as I can and I’m as driven as ever, but it’s nice not to have to get through every event to prepare for that one big event,” he said. “I can just give it my all at every single event and go for a W each time.”
McMorris expects to be busy away from the slopes, too.
He and his team are trying to make a film that follows him for a whole year, documenting everything from competitions to appearances for his sponsors.
As well, he noted that negotiations were ongoing for a second season of McMorris & McMorris, the MTV vehicle that follows the exploits of Mark and his older brother, Craig.
“It takes quite a bit of time to get it green lit, if it will get green lit,” Mark said. “But we’re working toward it and hopefully it’ll happen.
“There’s no shortage of projects coming your guys’ way.”