Snowboarding champion still soaring
Mark McMorris’s name is synonymous with snowboarding. The fact that he grew up in a place that’s largely devoid of hills was not a factor.
The 22-year-old Reginan has become one of the world’s most successful athletes in the history of competitive snowboarding. McMorris has won 12 gold medals at the X Games, a bronze medal in slopestyle at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and many more. In 2011, he became the first person in the world to land the backside triple cork 1440, a trick once thought impossible.
McMorris’s name has become a brand unto itself. A snowboarding video game bearing his likeness was released in 2016. Being from a place without any mountains, McMorris has said he hopes his success shows kids growing up in Saskatchewan that the sport isn’t off-limits to them.
“It doesn’t matter where you are from,” said McMorris in a 2011 interview with the Regina LeaderPost.
Despite his impressive skills, McMorris is still mortal. Things took a turn for the worse in February 2016, when he broke his femur during a competition in Los Angeles. Determined to get back on the board, McMorris underwent rehabilitation for half a year. It seems to have worked.
He won a bronze medal at the World Cup big air competition in Milan, Italy, in November. Two weeks later, he won the big air competition at the FIS World Cup event in Pyeonchang, South Korea.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Canada’s most famous snowboarder is that he isn’t finished. As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the Leader-Post and StarPhoenix are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.