By Aaron Stuckel

‘McRib came through’ says McMorris’ uncle

Feb 9, 2014 | 11:46 AM

He might be from the flat lands of the Saskatchewan Prairies, but Regina’s Mark McMorris will be coming back home with a bronze medal for his efforts in the slopestyle snowboarding event.

McMorris scored 88.75 out of 100 in the final of the competition to become Canada’s first medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. American Sage Kotsenburg took home gold and Norway’s Staale Sandbech claimed silver.
McMorris had a shaky start falling on the last jump in his first run of the final. But he made up for it in his second run, perfectly landing a triple cork as he finished.

It was a huge moment for John McMorris, Mark’s uncle, as watched in the early morning hours Saturday.

“My mother, who is 93 years old, said she never expected anyone in the family to go to the Olympics let alone come home with a medal. So we’re just very, very happy for him,” he said.

It wasn’t an easy competition for McMorris. It might have been the nerves, but he fell a number of times in his qualifying and semi-final runs. But then again it could have been a rib that he broke during the X-Games just a few weeks prior to heading to Sochi. Either way, his uncle said he was proud of him for being able to compete under the circumstances.

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“Mark’s ability to keep coming back—I mean you’ve heard of do or die. Well, he always got to the position where he had to do and he did it,” he said.

“Considering he had a broken rib on top of everything else, I mean, McRib came through.”

There were also some concerns over the judging of the event. In other competitions, snowboarders are allowed to meet with the judges beforehand to get an understanding of what they are looking for. That didn’t happen at the Olympic event. And in his first runs of the qualifying event, McMorris expressed some disappointment at his scores, saying he though he deserved better.

But with a bronze medal win, John said it didn’t matter.

“Being the first Olympics ever for the slopestyles competition, it was as fair for one as it was for the other. In the end, he came up with a bronze and I think he did very well,” he said.

Two fellow Canadians also competed in the slopestyle finals. Maxence Parrot, from Bromont, Quebec finished fifth and Montreal's Sebastian Toutant landed in 9th.

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