After seeing his life turned upside down due to cancer three years ago, Quebecer Maxence Parrot achieved quite a feat by winning his first Olympic gold medal yesterday, in slopestyle.
The Bromont snowboarder had come a long way, he who had a nightmare in 2018 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But now he can turn the page in a beautiful way on this dark episode, winning the coveted title.
Even without having fought the disease, to get your hands on a gold medal is a feat.
“To participate in my third Games after having gone through what I have been through and to find myself on my board among the best in the world means a lot to me,” the 27-year-old athlete recently told the Journal.
Parrot, who won silver in Pyeongchang, started her day well, scoring 79.86 points on her first run in the final.
But he raised the bar a notch on his second attempt, multiplying the spectacular maneuvers with great ease, which brought him an impressive total of 90.96 points, good for first place.
All the other snowboarders tried to catch up with him, but none was able to present a descent capable of surpassing that of Parrot thereafter, even if the latter could not improve his result on his third test.
McMorris with bronze
In the case of McMorris, he waited until the last second before getting on the podium.
Second to last to start, the native of Regina, Sask., was in fourth place heading into his final run.
After a flawless attempt, the judges awarded him 88.53 points, just behind the Chinese Su Yiming, who finished the competition with 88.70 points, which earned him the silver medal.
The other Maple Leaf representative in the final, Quebecer Sébastien Toutant, was unable to complete one of his three runs without making at least one major error costing him several points.
He finally took ninth place, due to a run of 54.00 points.
– With QMI Agency
