Mark McMorris Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About Bronze Medalist Snowboarder 2018

Mark McMorris grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and was born on December 9, 1993, making him 24 years old. Growing up, he first began skateboarding at age 4. When he was five on a family ski trip to Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, he tried snowboarding for the first time and fell in love with the sport. Two years later, he received his first snowboard and hasn't stopped since. His brother, Craig McMorris, is also a professional snowboarder on the Canadian national snowboarding team. His focus is slopestyle, as opposed to Mark's focus on Big Air. Craig and Mark have always had a sibling rivalry which has turned more into sibling support in their adult years. Currently, Craig is a sport's analyst for ESPN, CBC, and ABC. Mark's father, Don, is a politician in SK, Canada and has held titles in various minister roles such as Minister of Highways and Infrastructure and Health Minister. His mother is an Operating Room Nurse and the one who planned the original ski trip that got Mark and his brother so excited about snowboarding.

In addition to a bronze medal in Slopestyle in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Mark McMorris has won another bronze at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, also for Slopestyle. Surprisingly, he came back to win bronze in Pyeongchang only 11 months after a life-threatening injury that caused him to be in a medically induced coma. In addition to the 2 Olympic medals, Mark has won 14 X Games medals and 3 US Open Championships, all while maintaining calm under the increasing pressures of being the #4 ranked snowboarder in the world. He was named Male Rookie of the Year at the Transworld Rider's Poll Awards in 2012, and recently named the Best Male Action Sports Athlete at the 2017 ESPY Awards. To this day, Mark McMorris's financial net worth as of 2018 is estimated at $1.9 million, up from $1.6 million in 2017. He currently has 6 sponsors. His Twitter account boasts 201k followers and his Instagram account has 768k followers. His Instagram and Twitter are both @markmcmorris.

Mark McMorris first began to compete professionally in snowboarding in 2009 at the age of 16. It didn't take long for him to make his mark when he won first place at the FIS World Championship a year later. Since then, he's become one of the most successful snowboarders in the sport. In 2011, he became the first snowboarder to successfully land a backside triple cork 1440. The trick comprises of three parts. The rider has to rotate backside four complete rotations, then do three off-axis rotations, and finally, grab the board while doing it. It is so challenging, it was once thought impossible. Then, only one year later, he did another near impossible. He won gold twice at the same Winter X Games event, in both Big Air and Slopestyle. In addition, he landed the first triple ever in a Winter X Games. Since then, he's won 14 more X Games medals, multiple Dew Tour medals, starred in snowboarding films, and won two bronze Olympic medals, including at the recent 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Currently, he is sponsored by Burton, Red Bull, Oakley, Awsm, SkullCandy and SportChek.

In March of 2016, Mark McMorris suffered a near-fatal snowboarding accident when he crashed into a tree during a filming session in the backcountry of Canada. With his brother and friends in tow, he was airlifted off the mountain to a local hospital in Vancouver. He had 17 broken bones, a ruptured spleen, and a collapsed lung. The injuries were so bad, classified as near-fatal, that he had to be placed in a medically induced coma by the doctors. In the end, his worst injuries included a fractured jaw, fractured pelvis, fractured left arm and rib fractures. He has undergone two successful surgeries. It's since taken him about a year to fully recover from his injuries, and there is still longterm recovery in the process, though he is clearly well enough to win Olympic medals.

In 2013, Mark and his brother Craig partnered with MTV on a show called McMorris & McMorris, about their lives as professional snowboarders. The show followed them around as they traveled, competed and trained in their sport of snowboarding. The show was an 8-episode mini docu-series. It was not continued for future seasons. In addition to McMorris & McMorris, Mark has been featured on other television shows like X-Games The Process and Unbroken, and featured in snowboarding movies like Burton's Standing Sideways, Brain Farm Cinema's The Art of Flight and even in his own personal project In Motion. His most recent featured film, Unbroken, tells the story of his near-fatal injury and the miraculous road to recovery for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. The film released on February 17, 2018 on ABC.