Everyone knows about former Toronto Blue Jays slugger José Bautista and his bat flip heard ’round the world but it seems like he’s got some serious cross-sport competition.
On Sunday, Mark McMorris channelled his inner “Joey Bats” by celebrating with a “board flip” after snagging the bronze medal in Beijing at the slopestyle snowboard event.
The event brought Team Canada’s third and fourth medals of Beijing 2022, courtesy of McMorris and his teammate Max Parrot, who earned Canada’s first gold medal of the Games.
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For McMorris, it was his third straight Olympic bronze in slopestyle snowboarding. The duo is sharing the podium for the second straight Games after winning silver and bronze at PyeongChang 2018.
The Regina native scored 88.53 on his final run on Sunday, just 0.17 points back of the silver medal — which went to China’s Su Yiming.
But his “board flip” is certainly worthy of the gold medal:
M&M 🚨🇨🇦
Mark McMorris STOMPS IT to guarantee himself a BRONZE medal at #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/JVIWNvrPFs
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 7, 2022
Team Canada shared an epic shot of McMorris’ snowboard flip on Twitter and tagged the Toronto Blue Jays asking them, “what do you think?”
🤘 MARK MCMORRIS SNOWBOARD FLIP 🤘 pic.twitter.com/odZsm0yaEe
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) February 7, 2022
The Jays responded by calling it “flippin’ awesome” before sharing a shot of Bautista’s now-famous bat flip from Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series.
Flippin’ Awesome 🥇🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/9Qi3OFXTTv
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) February 7, 2022
Besides pure joy, McMorris’ board flip might have been an expression of impressive progress. In 2017, McMorris suffered a nearly fatal back-country snowboarding accident where he suffered a broken jaw and left arm, ruptured his spleen, fractured a pelvic bone and a rib, and suffered a collapsed left lung.
After winning the medal, the 28-year-old said he intends to make a run at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
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