Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot won the big air gold medal at X Games Oslo on Saturday in his first competition since being declared cancer-free two months ago.
The Olympic silver medallist in slopestyle in 2018 and now six-time X Games champion was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma on Dec. 21, 2018. The cancer affects white blood cells in the lymphatic system.
The 25-year-old from Bromont, Que., threw down three big jumps in each of his runs in Saturday’s final, scoring a combined 91 points on his two best runs.
Parrot scored a 47 on his first jump, a cab triple cork 1620, and 44 on the frontside triple cork he landed on his second run.
READ MORE: Olympian snowboarder Max Parrot diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Sven Thorgren of Sweden was second with 88.33 points and Japan’s Yuki Kadono took bronze with a score of 84.66.
Regina’s Mark McMorris, who has 17 X Games medals, placed fifth in the six-man final. A podium finish would have tied McMorris with American Shaun White’s X Games medal record of 18.
Parrot last competed Nov. 24, 2018, when he placed eighth at a big air World Cup in Beijing.
He’d noticed a bump on his neck and consulted a doctor upon his return to Canada. Parrot underwent his 12th and final round of chemotherapy in mid-June.
Parrot won big air gold at X Games Aspen three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, but wasn’t able to compete there this year.
The Canadian Press
