Mark McMorris of Team Canada during the men's slopestyle final on Wednesday.David Ramos/Getty Images
Mark McMorris’s quest for gold in his fourth Olympics did not go his way.
In the men’s snowboard slopestyle final in Livigno, the three-time Olympic bronze medalist from Regina skidded on his second run and fell on his third, putting him eighth overall among a field of 12 athletes.
He had gone into the final with high hopes for a podium finish, having qualified in third place going into Wednesday’s medal round.
“I’m feeling pretty beat up, mentally and physically, but proud of my efforts and really, really proud to have made it to my fourth Olympics,” he told reporters after the competition. “I worked my ass off to be here, I have the tricks to do so. But in sports, it doesn’t always go your way ... This is really hard to swallow.”
Su Yiming, 22, placed first, handing China its first gold medal in what has been a disappointing Olympics so far for the country. With four days of competitions remaining before the Milan Cortina Games close, China has only seven medals.
Silver went to Taiga Hasegawa of Japan, and Jake Canter of the U.S. won bronze.
McMorris appeared shattered by his slopestyle performance but was lucky to have competed. On Feb. 4, he fell hard in a big air practice run and suffered a concussion, a bruised pelvis and strained abdominal muscles. He recovered remarkably fast and his doctors gave him the green light to compete in slopestyle, but he skipped the big air event.
He told reporters that, in spite of age – he’s 32 – and a 16-year snowboarding career, he wants to stay in the game. “I don’t plan to stop anytime soon,” he said.
When asked if Milan Cortina is his last Olympics, all he said was, “I don’t know.”
McMorris won bronze in slopestyle in the last three Olympics – Beijing 2022, PyeongChang 2018 and Sochi 2014. He won the World Cup big air championship in Aspen in 2021.
His colleague, Cameron Spalding, 20, of Peterborough, Ont., placed tenth in the slopestyle final.
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