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Regina snowboarder Mark McMorris has been cleared to compete in the Olympic men’s slopestyle event after a crash saw him taken off the hill on a stretcher last week.
Don McMorris, Mark’s father, said he couldn’t be happier his son got the green light to participate in the event.
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“He worked so hard over the last year and a half to compete both in big air and in slopestyle,” Don said. “Unfortunately, we all know what happened.
“Just a bit of a fall, a tumble before big air.”
Mark snowboarded down the Italian slopes on Friday, which he recorded in a video posted to Facebook.
The crash on Feb. 4 left Mark with a concussion, bone bruising near his pelvis and an abdominal strain, according to Team Canada.
“He’s resilient and strong,” Don said. “We just had our fingers crossed that it wasn’t too serious, and that with time, he’d be able to compete and that certainly was what we heard.”
He said it was the right decision for Mark not to ride in the big air event, but is hoping his son will be 100 per cent ready for the slopestyle event on Monday.
“It was a crash, but what was more disappointing for him was that he couldn’t compete,” Don said.
McMorris won bronze Olympic medals in slopestyle events in 2014, 2018 and 2022.
On the evening of Feb. 4, Don and his wife has returned from dinner with friends in Livigno, when they got a call from Mark’s manager he had a bad fall on the hill.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the first time we’ve had that phone call,” he said. “I don’t think you ever get used to it.”
Medical personnel stretcher Canada’s Mark McMorris off after crashing during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Mark has recovered from serious snowboarding injuries in the past, including a broken jaw, fractured left arm, ruptured spleen, a pelvic fracture, rib fractures and a collapsed left lung in 2017.
He had crashed into a tree while snowboarding in the back country on Rainbow Mountain in British Columbia.
“The injury doesn’t change the goals,” Mark said, quoted on Team Canada’s official website on Friday. “The goal is always just to ride to the best of my ability, and if I do that, I think I’ll be in a really good place.”
The qualifier for slopestyle will begin on Monday, and the final will take place on Sunday.
“(Mark’s) in a good spot because he’s done as much work – if not more – than he ever did going into the other ones (Olympics),” Don said. “Not that he slacked off.”
