Three years ago, Max Parrot was lying in a hospital bed receiving his latest round of chemotherapy treatment - unclear if he would get healthy again let alone be able to compete.
But on Monday the Canadian freeskier continued his astonishing comeback to win gold in the slopestyle competition at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
A silver medallist in the same event four years ago, it was in December 2018 that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, beginning a six-month chemotherapy treatment and forcing him out of the whole 2018-19 season.
The prospect of a return to competition acted as the motivation for him to get healthy again, the details of which were played out in an emotive documentary, and he proved victorious on his competitive return at XGames in Norway.
But his Olympic gold – the first of his career at his third Games – comfortably eclipsed the past glories on his lengthy journey back from cancer.
“It just really shows how anything is possible,” he said. “Three years ago, I was laying down in a hospital bed with no energy, no muscles, no cardio. And today, I’m an Olympic gold medallist and I did the biggest run of my life.”
Parrot’s stand-out run was his second in which he landed a frontside 1620 on his final jump, which merited a score of 90.96 points ahead of Chinese 17-year-old silver medallist Su Yiming and fellow Canadian Mark McMorris.
After that run, he said: “It’s the biggest run I’ve done in my entire career. I’ve never done three triples in a row in a run. Everything was so clean so I’m just extremely proud of myself with that.
“So much went by in those last four years. I had to go through cancer – it was a nightmare, it’s so hard to describe what I’ve been through.”
Men’s downhill skiing has recently become the reserve of the elder statesmen of the sport. Four years ago, Aksel Lund Svindal had become the oldest alpine Olympic champion in winning the sport’s speed event at the age of 35.
Just four days ahead of his 35th birthday, Switzerland’s Beat Feuz succeeded him as Olympic champion in the event, which had been delayed from the weekend because of high winds.
His run was just 0.1seconds faster than 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey, who took the silver ahead of Austrian Matthias Mayer, the event’s gold medallist eight years ago. “I can’t think of anything more beautiful than flying home with the gold medal,” said Feuz afterwards.
There was a big shock in the women’s giant slalom when defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out on the seventh gate of her opening run to leave Sweden’s Sara Hector to take the gold.
“It’s a huge disappointment,” said Shiffrin, who is bidding for medals in a host of alpine disciplines. “The day was finished basically before it even started.”
On the ice, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva became the first woman in Olympic history to land a quad jump as the Russian Olympic Committee won team figure skating gold.
Meanwhile, there was a late start to ROC’s group game against Canada in the women’s ice hockey when the ROC’s Covid results were delayed. Both teams had to eventually take to the ice in masks for their match.
