Stackin’ Medals – Spencer O’Brien wins gold and Mark McMorris silver at Stoneham World Championships

The FIS is like that annoying cousin you kinda hate but have to deal with to make peace. But hey, if you're gonna be forced to participate, you might as well bring home the Gold (and silver) for your country on home turf!

The FIS World Championships are going on at Stoneham in Quebec City right now all week and to kick it off BC-based Spencer O'Brien slayed the other ladies and won Gold in Slopestyle by a mile. On the men's side, Winnepeg-native Mark McMorris took home a sweet silver medal.

For those of you not familiar with the situation, basically, back when the olympics decided to include snowboarding (ie. let us join the circus to help them with ratings and to stay relevant) they handed control of the whole shebang not to someone who actually had anything to do with the sport, but to a bunch of stuck-up fancy pants skiers called the FIS (Federation International de Ski). At almost every step in the decade and a half that has followed that decision, the FIS has taken almost every opportunity available to prove that they do not care at all about snowboarders, or the progression of our sport, and basically anyone wanting to compete for their country is forced to deal with these guys' archaic ways and (to put it bluntly) pretty lame competitions. 

Canada’s Mark McMorris, who won a silver in men’s slopestyle Friday, was pretty clear that he’d be doing the bare minimum of events run by FIS, the international ski and snowboard federation.

“If I could do none that would be a dream come true but that’s just not the way it goes,” he said, referring to the need to qualify for the Olympics through the FIS points system.

McMorris and some other snowboarders have been critical of FIS slopestyle courses, saying the jumps are too small and the rails too basic to let them really showcase the tricks they’re capable of doing.

“I got a good result that gets me closer to the Olympics and that’s all that matters,” McMorris said. “I’m really happy with the way I rode.”

Anyways. What can you do, right? Like it or not, it's badass as fuck to be able to compete for your country in an event like the Olympics so the athletes deal with it. It's just good to see them also taking a stand and speaking their minds on the situation. 

Congrats to both Spencer and Mark on a job well done! 

And here is CBC covering it. Kinda hilarious that for a slopestyle event they only show one air of Spencer's, making it look like a Big Air, but cool to see nonetheless!