Mark McMorris: The Alchemist

Mark McMorris has nothing to prove.

The Canadian is one of the greatest snowboarders in history. Last month, he claimed slopestyle gold at the Winter X Games in Aspen to take his medal tally to 21, overtaking Jamie Anderson's previous record of 20.

McMorris now has six Winter X Games slopestyle titles, one more than Shaun White, and is now training his sights on Olympic gold at Beijing 2022.

"My Beijing aims are to change the shade of my previous bronzes, I would love to get into the gold and silver bracket, I know I have the tricks, I just got to land them at the time, so I'm looking forward to it," he told China's CGTN.

Those tricks include the switch backside triple cork 1620 stalefish, frontside triple cork 1440 Weddle and a backside triple cork 1620 Indy he landed in Aspen.

Tricks that landed him on top of the podium above reigning world champion Marcus Kleveland (second), and reigning Olympic champion Red Gerard (fourth).

Out of all of the tantalising ski and snowboard stories at Beijing 2022 - White's last dance, Chloe Kim's second coming, the Hirano brothers potentially sharing the podium, and Ailing Gu's freestyle ski sweep bid - McMorris' is arguably the most compelling.

Rising from the flatlands of Canada's Saskatchewan to ridiculous heights in his sport, McMorris' journey is as improbable as it is inspiring.

He's won two Olympic bronze medals, one at Sochi 2014 and another at PyeongChang 2018, both in slopestyle, and he'll aim for the podium in both slopestyle and big air at Beijing 2022.

While the Canadian topped the pile in Aspen in the slopestyle, Marcus Kleveland became 2022 Winter X Games big air champ with Olympic silver-medallist Max Parrot second and flying Finn Rene Rinnekangas third.

McMorris was fourth, just off the podium, meaning he's in range for an Olympic double in China.

Mark McMorris injury

McMorris' injury list is chilling. And his recovery tales mind-blowing.

In 2017, he crashed while back-country boarding in Whistler and was left close to death in the snow with a fractured jaw, fractured left arm, ruptured spleen, pelvic fracture, rib fractures and a collapsed left lung.

Incredibly, he came back to win slopestyle bronze at PyeongChang 2018.

"Pretty well touch and go there for a second," McMorris remembers, "because it's in the back country you only have 90 minutes when you rupture your spleen, the heli(copter) barely got there in time."

When he woke up from the induced coma, his famed physio Damian Moroney was standing there with McMorris' first words: "Can I get to the Olympics?"

Eleven months later, he was on the PyeongChang podium rocking more Olympic hardware.

That wasn't his first miraculous Olympic comeback either - just 11 days before Sochi 2014 he fractured a rib while competing at the X Games in Aspen, and won his first Olympic bronze.

Mark McMorris' nickname - OK, nicknames

A man with more lives than a clowder of cats, he has picked up a few nicknames along the way.

'McRib' they called him after his Sochi heroics.

'McLovin' for the love, happiness and kindness he shows to everyone around him, and that famous upbeat attitude on tour.

'Sparky' is another one.

And his older brother Craig McMorris, also a pro boarder, has said that his brother's nickname growing up was 'Piglet', "Mark's a podium piglet if you will," big bro says.

Mark McMorris and Seb Toutant go way back

From the first time he strapped into a board when he was five, Mark McMorris has been in love with snowboard.

The reason he loves it says everything about him:

"You never snowboard alone, you're always with friends, and that's why I love it. People say it's an individual sport but it's far from that and that's why I love it."

One of the longest lasting friendships he has is with PyeongChang big air gold medallist Seb Toutant with the pair coming up together as teens on the pro circuit.

Seb told CBC, "I think both of us are just really happy that snowboarding brought us to where we are right now. The friendship is still there. We don't see each other as much as we want to outside of the sport but we [still] travel to all the same places all the time."

The Canada teammates would hang out during downtime as teens, skateboarding, wakeboarding, and snowboarding together in Montreal where Toutant lived.

"Being grown up now and having more responsibility and stuff to do with sponsors, makes it a little different than when we were 14," Toutant says.

Mark McMorris infinite air

His influence on the rise of snowboard to the peak of popularity that it now enjoys cannot be overestimated.

Apart from all the physical sacrifices and putting his body on the line, his list of tricks and feats and firsts on a board are multiple.

Like the backside triple cork 1440 he landed in 2011 - the first to ever do it.

Or the backside triple cork 1440 that he became the first to repeat at the X Games in 2012.

How he nailed the first-ever frontside triple cork 1440 at the 2015 X Games, and flew the first double cork off a rail in 2018.

At 28, McMorris says he's now a snowboard senior citizen in a young man's game, but he's been breaking ground for the next gen in other ways too.

The filming and documentary and social media presence McMorris has worked at for over two decades has shone a light for other pros, helping create a path to making a life out of the thing they love.

He even got his own video game: Infinite Air featuring Mark McMorris.

Mark McMorris: Unbroken

Capturing kicks and tricks and wild runs on a snowboard is something McMorris, brother Craig, and childhood friend Adam Burwell have been doing for a long time.

They captured the drama of his 2017 crash and his remarkable success in Korea, and told McMorris' story using years of footage and interviews with friends, family and snowboard legends like Jake Burton Carpenter, Torstein Horgmo, Nicolas Mueller and Danny Davis.

They called it 'Unbroken: The Snowboard Life of Mark McMorris.'

Now at Beijing 2022, McMorris remains unbroken, and travelling to a Games injury-free for the first time.

Claiming the Olympic gold that so many feel he deserves could give us another peak McMorris moment.

When to watch Mark McMorris in competition at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

Mark McMorris begins his bid for a third Olympic medal in Snowboard Slopestyle Qualification on Sunday 6 February at 12:30 Beijing time (20:30 Pacific Standard Time on Saturday).

The final of that event takes place the next day with the first run at 12:00 Beijing time (20:00 PST on Sunday).

He also competes in the Snowboard Big Air with qualification taking place on Monday 14 February at 13:30 Beijing time (21:30 on Sunday).

The Big Air final is the following day with the first run at 13:00 Beijing time (21:00 on Monday).

MORE: How to watch snowboard at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022