KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - By the time Maxence Parrot landed his run to conclude the Olympic snowboard slopestyle final, fellow Canadian Mark McMorris was ready to walk out of the corral at the base of the course.
He'd clearly been bumped from the podium, he thought, after seeing his teammate's run. But just as he was wrong in predicting his own result, McMorris was wrong about Parrot's as well. JUDGING: BELIEVE IT: Family watches from afar USA's Kostenburg wins with style NEW HERO: WHO WILL WIN: Medal projections for every event Kotsenburg a fan favorite
On a day when the judging was continually called into question during snowboard slopestyle's Olympic debut at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, it was McMorris who seemed to be slighted the most and yet seemed genuinely content with a third-place finish.
Parrot went on to finish fifth as American Sage Kotsenburg won the first gold medal of these Winter Olympics.
"When I landed that run, I was sure I was going to get on the podium, first or second," Parrot said. "It's a really different run than Sage cause Sage got his own special style, and I guess judges really liked his style today. I think Mark got scored low too on his run. I think Mark deserved to be first or second, too."
"I would have loved to be in the gold medal position, but what I've been through in the past two weeks, just standing on the podium in general feels like a gold medal to me," Mark McMorris said.(Photo: Kyle Terad, USA TODAY Sports) GALLERY: DOWNHILL: Bode Miller in prime form The best images from opening ceremony
A gold medal favorite coming into the event, McMorris competed with his back against the wall while in Sochi. He needed his second run in the semifinal earlier Saturday to make it into the final.
Once there, he fell on his first run and needed his second to get in podium position. He became only the second rider to land two triple corks in a run, hitting a cab triple cork 1260 on the first jump and a backside triple cork 1440 on the third jump. THE BEST IMAGES FROM SLOPESTYLE
Parrot is the only other rider to land two triples, doing that to win X Games gold last month.
McMorris thought his run was enough to win gold, but his score of 88.75 put him in second at the time and was nearly five points behind Kotsenburg. In winning silver, Norwegian Staale Sandbech bumped McMorris down the podium.
"You can't prepare for the judging cause you have no clue, right," McMorris said. "And every event I've ever done, if you're doing triple corks, you're usually on the podium if everything else is really good. I thought, 'OK, perfect, I'll do two triple corks.' What can you do? I was really glad with the way I rode, and I guess two triple corks weren't the hammer today."
Considering the expectations McMorris faced coming into the competition, he could have been crushed by the result. But he wasn't, for one good reason - he was riding hurt.
The 20-year-old broke a rib at the X Games on Jan. 25 and needed nine days to get healthy enough to get back on his board. As it was, he competed throughout the week in pain.
"I would have loved to be in the gold medal position, but what I've been through in the past two weeks, just standing on the podium in general feels like a gold medal to me," he said. "It's a huge, huge sigh of relief right now."
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