Three years ago on the ground and now on top of the podium: At the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, snowboarder Max Parrot won the gold medal in slopestyle after overcoming cancer.
For Maxence Parrot it was not only a victory against the competition, but also against cancer: three years after the Canadian was diagnosed with lymph node cancer, the snowboarder won the gold medal in slopestyle at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. After three final rounds, Parrot won with the highest score of 90.96 ahead of Su Yiming from China and his compatriot Mark McMorris (88.53) and thus won the first Canadian gold medal in the discipline in which the athletes on a course, among other things, over different railings and jump ramps.
“Exactly three years ago I was in a hospital and had no energy, no muscles,” said the 27-year-old after his triumph: “Three years later, pursuing my passion again here at the Olympics, having the best run of my life and winning gold , this is madness.”
Max Parrot struggles through twelve chemotherapy regimens
Parrot won the silver medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games in February 2018. A few months later he noticed swollen lymph nodes for the first time. Then in December the bad news: Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a malignant disease of the lymphatic system.
Parrot endured 12 chemotherapy treatments over a period of six months. “I went through hell,” the athlete described his fight against the disease. “Chemotherapy takes you down to zero percent – no more muscle, no more stamina, no more energy. I had to build it all back up.” For the first time in his life he put his snowboard in the closet. “I felt like a lion in a cage.”
Parrot was all the happier about his successful Olympic comeback: “It feels almost unreal,” he said. “Being able to pursue my passion every day means so much to me.”
According to Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it is one of the malignant tumor diseases in adults with the highest cure rates. More than 80 percent of all sick people can therefore be cured. In the early stages it is even more than 90 percent.
Parrot has learned a lesson from his stroke of fate: “It has definitely changed me as a person and also as an athlete,” he reported. “As a person, I used to take life for granted and now I don’t. Every time I strap on my snowboard I appreciate it a lot more than I used to. I appreciate that every day I… passion.”
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Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
