Mark McMorris

Canada's snowboarding world champion Mark McMorris is one of the most decorated and successful athletes in the sport's competitive history. It all started for Mark McMorris on the slopes of Calgary, where he and his brother, Craig, cut their teeth in skiing and snowboarding during family holidays. Mark joined the Saskatchewan Snowboard Team at the age of 11 and soon began competing in rail jams and slopestyle contests around Canada. In 2009, at the age of 15, Mark competed in his first FIS World Cup snowboard contest and his first Burton U.S. Open. Then he secured spots on the podium at nearly every contest he entered. At his first X Games appearance, in Aspen, Colorado, in 2011, Mark earned a silver medal in Slopestyle and fourth place in Big Air. But everything changed for Mark when he made history by landing snowboarding's first ever backside triple cork 1440 at Snowmass park in Colorado. After that, Mark was invited on a park shoot with the crew from Brain Farm Cinema's The Art of Flight. He impressed while riding a custom-built jump and he's since gone on to appear in many other films, including Standing Sideways and 13. Mark continued to put in strong performances on the competitive stage as well as the screen. In 2012, he won double gold at X Games by winning the Big Air and Slopestyle categories. He also claimed victory at the US Open and dominated the upper echelons of the overall Slopestyle rankings on the TTR World Snowboard Tour while racking up medals at the Dew Tour, European Open, Air & Style and the X Games. Then, in 2014, he represented Canada at Slopestyle's debut at the Games in Sochi, Russia, where he won a bronze medal while competing with a broken rib. A freak accident while filming in the backcountry in 2017 led to multiple serious injuries and required an emergency helicopter evacuation, but Mark knows perhaps better than anyone that tough moments just make you stronger. "I got lucky on this one," he said at the time. "It's reminded me not to taking anything for granted." He bounced back from that injury setback in outstanding style with a series of impressive results throughout the 2018 season, including a headline-grabbing third-place finish in the Snowboard Slopestyle event in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and first place at the Burton US Open in Aspen, Colorado. He started 2020 with silver in Big Air at the Winter X Games in Aspen, bringing him level with Shaun White's record of 18 X Games medals. It wasn't long before he surpassed that total, claiming Big Air gold and Slopestyle silver a few weeks later at X Games Norway. Mark was back in the medals in 2021, too, with gold in Big Air at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships in Aspen. Mark is also the star of his own video game, Mark McMorris Infinite Air. And he's a philanthropist: The McMorris Foundation, which Mark launched with his brother in 2012, raises money to help Canadian children pursue their passion in sports.