Mark McMorris has apologized to fellow Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot for claiming he deserved to win the slopestyle gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Hours after Parrot, the Olympic champ, told The Associated Press that McMorris apologized to him on Saturday, the bronze medallist also posted his thoughts on Twitter.
I let my emotions get the better of me in the days following slopestyle and I want to sincerely apologize to Max. I’m amazed by what you’ve overcome and I’m extremely proud to have shared the podium with you. Let’s get another one for @teamcanada
— Mark McMorris (@markmcmorris) February 12, 2022
Parrot won the gold less than three years after beating cancer.
McMorris told CBC earlier this week he had the “run of the day.”
Parrot, Canada’s only gold medallist through eight days at the Beijing Olympics, told AP on Saturday that McMorris “apologized for his non-sportsmanship.”
Controversy emerged after the event on Feb. 7 when replays showed Parrot grabbed his knee instead of the board on one jump. But it was not noticed by judges, who did not ask for a replay because they believed the run looked clean, Iztok Sumatic, the head judge for the event in Beijing, said in an interview with snowboarding site Whitelines.
[relatedlinks]
Parrot acknowledged the miscue in an interview with CBC.
“Everyone that snowboards knows I missed that grab. I’m not hiding from that. It is what it is,” he said.
Parrot finished with 90.96 points, Su had 88.70 and McMorris was at 88.53.
Fans of Chinese snowboard star Su Yiming, who finished second, also took to social media to voice their feelings.
Yasuhiro Sato, Su’s coach, posted a letter on social networking site Weibo asking fans to stop criticizing judges, saying that he and Su respect the results that saw the athlete from the host country finish second.
All three medallists are set to compete again in big air qualifying on Monday.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.