Winter Olympics: Max Parrot wins snowboard slopestyle gold three years after cancer diagnosis

Parrot wins gold after controversial decision by judges in men's slopestyle

By Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Zhangjiakou

24th Winter Olympic Games

Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February

Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app

Canada's Max Parrot won Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold with the "best run of his life" - three years after being diagnosed with cancer.

But there was controversy over the judging of his second run, after he seemed to miss a key element of a jump.

His second-run score of 90.96 landed him the title, with China's 17-year-old Su Yiming taking silver and Canadian Mark McMorris securing the bronze.

"This is a mistake on the judges' part," said BBC commentator Ed Leigh.

Parrot should have grabbed his board during the jump but instead did what Leigh referred to as a "glaring knee grab".

"Something like that should have cost Parrot two or three points," he added.

"I looked at the sector scores afterwards - he got 9.35 out of 10. If they had spotted that, it would have been a six or a 6.5.

"There were three points between bronze and gold - that would have totally upended the podium."

Teams have 15 minutes from the end of a competition to lodge a written appeal with the jury.

From 'no cardio and no energy' to Olympic gold

Parrot was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in late 2018, but in July 2019 announced he was cancer-free after 12 rounds of chemotherapy.

"So much went by in those last four years," an emotional Parrot told BBC Sport.

"The last time I was at the Olympics, in Pyeongchang, I got a silver medal, and then I had to go through cancer. It was a nightmare - it's so hard to describe what I've been through.

"You have no cardio, you have no energy, you have no muscles. To be back out here, at the Olympics, on a podium again but with a gold medal, it feels amazing."

Parrot was 10th in qualifying on Sunday, but announced his intentions with his first run in the final, which put him in third.

The 2018 Olympic champion, American Red Gerard, led after the first run, but Parrot's second put him out of reach.

Former child actor Su, making his Olympic debut in his home nation and top in qualifying, also sealed his podium place with a 88.70 on his second run, while McMorris - already a two-time Olympic bronze medallist - nudged Gerard out of the medals on his final attempt.

"I laid down the best run of my entire life," said Parrot, who will also compete in the big air on 14-15 February.

"I'm so proud of every feature, how I was able to clear them, and I'm really stoked with my score."

'They put a box in my chest' - Snowboarder Parrot on emotional cancer battle

Analysis

BBC commentator Ed Leigh

It was an incredible win, but it wasn't without controversy.

All of the forums have lit up. Social media is full of it. On his fourth section, he did a big frontside 1440 and you're supposed to grab the board.

Instead, he did one of the cardinal sins - he used a body grab to keep his head and his feet together. And that would be marked down.

The judges have put execution at such a premium that something like that should have cost him two or three points. So the gold has gone wrong there.

I watched the flower ceremony afterwards - Max wasn't celebrating heavily and Mark McMorris had a face like thunder. I think Su Yiming actually took the gold there. This is a mistake on the judges' part.

There's a lot of pressure under the time constraints of the Olympic competitions to get a score out really quickly - I don't think they used the replays.

I spoke to one of the judges and he said they are distraught, and they have been excellent up to this point. But this is a big one, a really big one.

More from day three of the Winter Olympics:

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