Snowboarding
Mark McMorris, the unbreakable snowboarder
It was an incredible comeback. One year after Mark McMorris suffered a terrible accident, resulting in numerous fractures and being placed in a medically induced coma, he won the 2018 Burton US Open.
Mark McMorris is one of the most popular snowboarders of all time. He made history in 2011, when he became the first person to pull a Backside Triple Cork 1440—a trick that most experts and his contemporaries thought was impossible.
McMorris celebrates his back-to-back win at the US Open.
© Aaron Blatt / Red Bull Content Pool
The snowboarder, nicknamed “McLovin” for his kind, positive attitude, has been a regular medallist at the X-Games for Big Air and Slopestyle events. He’d been seriously injured once before, breaking his femur at the Los Angeles Air + Style 2016.
After you’ve fractured the longest and strongest bone in your body, just learning to walk again is a huge uphill challenge. Returning to competitive snowboarding is something else entirely.
8 min
Mark McMorris lands a world-first trick
Follow snowboard pro Mark McMorris’s story of attempting the first Front Board Backside Double Cork 1170.
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The accident
McMorris had just made a brave recovery from his injury when he was in yet another accident in 2017, this time in the backcountry of Whistler, British Columbia.
While snowboarding backcountry with friends, McMorris slammed into a tree in mid-air. He suffered a number of major injuries, including a fractured jaw, left arm, pelvis and ribs, a ruptured spleen and a collapsed lung, and had to be put into a medically induced coma.
The comeback
Doctors thought that McMorris would need at least a month in hospital recovering from his injuries. Yet he returned home only twelve days after the accident. Six months later, he was back on his snowboard, and five months after that, he claimed a bronze medal in the Men’s Slopestyle competition at the 2018 X-Games.
Nearly one year after the accident, he participated in the 2018 Burton US Open, coming in first at the prestigious competition for the fourth time in six years. “With everything I’ve been through, today makes it worthwhile 100 percent,” he said after his victory. “This is my life and this is what makes me most happy.” It really shows what you can accomplish if you never give up!
This is my life and this is what makes me most happy.
