AIR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION
Canadian Mark McMorris eases back in time for Olympic push after recovering from horrific backcountry snowboard crash.
Six months of intensive rehabilitation after breaking his leg in 2016 gave Olympic snowboarder Mark McMorris a new appreciation for his sport.
The last five months — once again spent in rehab, after breaking just about everything by crashing into a tree in the backcountry — have given him a new appreciation of life.
“I’m just really happy and thankful that I did get another chance, because it was pretty serious there for awhile,” McMorris said, referring to the late-March accident where he was rushed to hospital by helicopter.
“Trauma can go one of two ways. It can definitely break you down and make life more difficult for awhile. But the fact that I was given another opportunity, I can wake up every day and know that it can be so, so much worse.”
McMorris has been through the breakdown part already.
The 23-year-old needed multiple surgeries to repair a fractured jaw, shattered arm and ruptured spleen. He also sustained a pelvic fracture, broken ribs and a collapsed lung when he crashed into a tree during a backcountry film shoot in Whistler.
Since then, much of his daily routine at the Fortius Sport and Health clinic in Burnaby, B.C., has been as hard mentally as physically for a funloving snowboarder: stretching, Pilates, physiotherapy, chiropractor visits and specialized exercises with a trainer to accelerate recovery.
“All day, every day, trying to become a functioning human again.”
Now, he’s ready to start his latest chance at sport and life. If he has his way, it’s going to look a lot like the previous ones: lots of snowboarding, filming and throwing gnarly tricks to win competitions.
“I’m completely fired up and know that I will be able to snowboard,” McMorris told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday, before boarding a plane for two weeks of snowboarding in Australia.
“There’s going to be no other dis- tractions. I’m just going to be a snowboarder over there. Can’t wait.”
This is the beginning of McMorris’s bid to return to top form for February’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He has already qualified, assuming he’s healthy to compete, and with the debut of the single-jump competition (big air) to go with slopestyle, a course of jumps and rails, he’s hoping to win two medals this time.
This marks the second time the snowboarder from Regina will head to the Olympics on the heels of an injury. But given what he’s been though lately, the broken rib he suffered two weeks before winning a bronze medal in slopestyle at the 2014 Sochi Games seems like a scratch.
In February 2016, he snapped his right femur — the largest and strongest bone in the human body — when he landed badly at a big air competition in Los Angeles.
He came back from that in nearrecord time and had one of his strongest competitive seasons ever, showing he was still the man to beat.
Now, after breaking his left humerus — the largest bone in the upper body — among other things, he has to do it all over again. His plan is to get back to basics and snowboard as
“A lot of people . . . have told me that I really inspired them, and that’s a really good feeling.”
SNOWBOARDER MARK MCMORRIS
much as possible for the next few months.
“Because all those young and upand-coming kids are snowboarding all day every day and getting better,” he said.
“I’ve probably, over the last four years, snowboarded less than every other pro snowboarder on earth just because I have so many obligations and I’ve been hurt.”
Much of the toughest competition will come from his Canadian teammates, including Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., who also has his sights set on double gold in Pyeongchang.
McMorris doesn’t expect to compete until December, with the Dew Tour event from Dec. 14 to 17 in Breckenridge, Colo., the most likely point of re-entry. If he chooses, there’s also the Air and Style competition in Beijing starting Dec. 6.
This isn’t an ideal Olympic buildup, but McMorris said he’s still confident that he’ll be ready to deliver his best when it matters most: “(I’m) definitely not behind in the trick department, just behind in hours on snow.”
McMorris has long been known for pushing the sport’s boundaries with ever-harder tricks and the effortless style this judged sport demands. Now he’s added rehab specialist and comeback kid to his list of accomplishments. It’s wasn’t a role he was looking for, but one he’s come to embrace.
“A lot of people over the last while have told me that I really inspired them, and that’s a really good feeling,” he said.
“That’s kind of what I shoot for in this industry: making myself happy, but stoking other people out and making other people want to reach their goals, too.”