Canada’s Max Parrot has locked up his second medal of the Beijing Olympics with a bronze in the men’s Big Air snowboarding event on Tuesday.
The Cowansville, Que. native also won gold in the men’s slopestyle earlier in the Games.
“It was a really hard final, the level was just through the roof,” Parrot told CBC. “I’ve never seen such a big final with so many (attempts) landed pretty much perfectly by so many of the riders tonight.”
The latest medal is Canada’s 16th in Beijing — one gold, four silver and 11 bronze.
Parrot now has three career Olympic medals after winning silver in slopestyle in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Big Air sees riders take three attempts down the hill with their two highest scores added together for a final total. Parrot had to rally to earn his medal after falling on his first run. The 27-year-old followed that up with a score of 94.0 in the second round then capped it off with a 76.25 in the final round for a total of 170.25.
Su Yiming from China — who turns 18 this week — stunned the home crowd with a score of 182.50 to take the gold after winning silver in slopestyle. Mons Røisland of Norway took the Big Air silver with a big score of 82.50 on his final run, giving him 171.75 points to overtake Parrot.
“Su’s really an amazing rider,” Parrot said. “He’s only 17 years old. Two years ago, I didn’t even know him. His performance tonight was really incredible. He deserved to win. I have a lot of respect for him. After the podium, he told me how much I pushed him in the past years to up the echelon of the tricks. That really touched my heart for sure. He told me I was his idol and everything. I told him ‘well now, you’re pushing me to do better.’”
Regina’s Mark McMorris fell twice and finished 10th with a score of 113.75. Darcy Sharpe of Calgary finished 12th with a score of 87.75.
Parrot’s strong performance came after some controversy in slopestyle with replays showing the judges missed an error by the Canadian.
McMorris, who won bronze in slopestyle, later told CBC in an interview he thought he had the run of the day and would have liked to win a medal of a different colour. He later apologized to Parrot in person and on Twitter.
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