ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Ideally, Mark McMorris would have been able to push himself and give fans a preview of what he might do in the men's slopestyle final at the Beijing Olympics.
But after a 62.70 score on his first run put him on the bubble in Sunday's qualifying round, the Regina native couldn't take any chances. His 83.30 was the best score of the second run and second best overall.
"If you land the first run and you're surely in there then it's one of those things where you go kind of harder and try and get that final drop for finals day," said McMorris. "But I was kinda in the position where I needed to land a run on my second run.Â
"But I was able to do that and they definitely hooked me up with a really good score."
McMorris said he was going to "chill" all night to ready himself for the rigours of competing in Monday's slopestyle final. That included wearing compression recovery pants, working with a physiotherapist, chatting with family and friends by phone, and debriefing on the day with coaches and teammates.
"I just want to ride to the best of my ability," said McMorris. "If I do that I should have a really good shot at a gold."
China's Su Yiming had the best overall score headed into Monday's final, with an 86.80 in his first run. Su shouted "Oh my God! What the (expletive)!" on live television when he saw that his score was more than eight points better than the second-best run to that point.
Sebastian Toutant of L'Assomption, Que., touched the ground his first time through the course, leading to a 23.68 score, the second-worst of the first run. He recovered with a 70.11 his next time down to finish the qualifiers eighth overall.
"I was in the first couple of riders to drop in for qualifiers and then the wind hit me on the first jump," said Toutant. "So that run was kind of a throwaway, which made me mad because we only have two runs and that was not one of my hardest tricks in the run."
Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., was 10th with his 70.11 score in the first run standing up to take him to the final. He said he was purposefully more conservative in his first run because advancing to the medal round was all that mattered.
"The strategy is just to make it to the final. If I qualified 12th or first it doesn't make a difference in the end so I'll have for sure a different run tomorrow," said Parrot.
Darcy Sharpe of Comox Valley, B.C., was outside the top 12 and missed the final after placing 23rd.
The trio of McMorris, Toutant and Parrot have a wealth of Olympic experience between them.
Parrot and McMorris won silver and bronze respectively in the men's slopestyle competition at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. McMorris also won bronze in 2014 at Sochi.
Toutant won gold in the big air event in 2018 and will defend his crown starting Feb. 14.
Parrot said that his experience in Pyeongchang taught him that it's OK to adapt in the middle of a competition, even to make strategic changes between runs.
"It's important to be aware," said Parrot. "Like every minute you have to be able to watch the others, you have to watch the scores, you have to watch how the judges score as well.
"You have to be able to adjust yourself at any given time."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2022.
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
