'It's insane': Cancer survivor Parrot soars to Olympic snowboard gold
'It's insane': Cancer survivor Parrot soars to Olympic snowboard gold
Three years ago Max Parrot was in hospital fighting cancer -- on Monday he won men's snowboard slopestyle gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Canadian, who said chemotherapy left him "at zero percent" when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2018, beat 17-year-old Chinese home favourite Su Yiming to win gold with a score of 90.96.
"Exactly three years ago I was lying in a hospital and I had no energy, no muscles, no cardio," said the 27-year-old Parrot, the silver medallist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
"It was the hardest moment of my life and to be standing here three years later at the Olympics again, doing my passion, laying down the best run I've ever done and winning gold -- it's insane."
Parrot took the lead on the second run and held on despite a tenacious challenge from Su, whose high-flying antics thrilled the small but enthusiastic crowd at Genting Snow Park.
Su claimed silver on 88.70 points, giving China their first ever medal in men's snowboarding.
"It's a dream come true, for sure," said Su, who has only competed in six events on the World Cup circuit.
"It's my first time at the Olympics, and in my hometown -- I'm so happy to put my runs down today and share the podium with my idols."
Another Canadian, Mark McMorris, took the bronze with 88.53 points, edging out American defending champion Red Gerard on his final run.
(A.Laurent--LPdF)
