Cancer survivor flies in face of adversity

Slopestyle winner revels in 'insane' victory three years after devastating diagnosis

Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot took home the Olympic gold medal in men's slopestyle on Monday, just over three years after he was diagnosed with cancer.

The Canadian, who said chemotherapy left him "at zero percent" when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2018, beat 17-year-old Chinese home favorite Su Yiming to win gold with a score of 90.96.

"Exactly three years ago, I was lying in a hospital, and I had no energy, no muscles, no cardio," said the 27-year-old, the silver medalist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

"It was the hardest moment of my life, and to be standing here three years later at the Olympics again, doing my passion, laying down the best run I've ever done and winning gold－it's insane."

Su earned the silver. Canada's Mark McMorris produced a strong final run to bump himself up to his third straight bronze, knocking defending champion Red Gerard of the United States off the podium.

It was a disappointing day for some of the US medal hopefuls. Gerard couldn't put the Americans in the win column just hours after the heavily favored Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish in the giant slalom, her best ski racing event.

The 27-year-old Parrot was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma about 10 months after winning a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He underwent 12 treatments of chemotherapy over six months－a process he described as the toughest months of his life.

He steadily regained his strength and winning form as he earned Winter X Games gold medals in Big Air and slopestyle in 2019 and 2020.

"I was going through a true nightmare," Parrot said. "And just the thought of snowboarding was my dream at that point."

He was certainly at his best again on Monday, performing one triple cork after another along the Secret Garden course that's lined with a snow replica of the Great Wall.

Still, there were some anxious moments－like when his teammate crushed his final run. McMorris raised his right hand in the air after landing his last trick, thinking maybe he had won. But it wasn't good enough to move him past Parrot.

McMorris tapped the snow with his board before heading over to hug his teammate. "Max beat cancer, and it's pretty sick to see him do well," said McMorris, who has won a lot of medals, but none of them Olympic gold.

Agencies