Prior to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, CBC snowboarding analyst Craig McMorris revealed that he was most anticipating viewing “snowboarding explode onto the world stage”. With the games now in the rear-view mirror, McMorris is confident that his anticipations became reality.
“Snowboarding was the first event, with slopestyle,” McMorris tells Last Word On Sports. “There was so much media around it. Every story, everything [at] the beginning of the Olympics was all about the snowboarding. It really exploded in Canada and the rest of the world.”
Part of the reason for the exposure slopestyle gained in Canada was the success Canadians had on the slopes. Craig’s younger brother, Mark, won the bronze medal while teammate Maxence Parrot finished fifth. Spencer O’Brien also had a strong showing in the women’s event, although would have preferred a better final result.
Meanwhile, Mark McMorris finished fifth in another important event: Twitter’s most mentioned Olympic athlete, gaining notoriety for his sport. According to Mashable snowboarding was the fifth most tweeted about sport at the games.
Now that the main event is over, and the sport is in a bigger spotlight than ever, Craig McMorris believes that there are several internal changes that can be made to improve snowboarding.
“Snowboarding needs to improve on a lot of things like judging and selection of the Olympic teams,” says McMorris. “But once they improve on those things it will be bigger and better.”
He knows that snowboarding has already come a long way, and as a CBC analyst he had a front row seat to watch its international coming out party. It was an opportunity he never expected to have.
“I never really thought I would be going to the Olympics,” McMorris tells Last Word On Sports. “But then slopestyle became an Olympic sport and I got the [CBC] job.”
On top of being an unexpected opportunity, the CBC job had a huge learning curve for McMorris.
“It was crazy how much you had to learn,” said McMorris. “I have all these facts and birthdays, where everybody’s from and their ages. I had to do a lot of studying. If you want to be a good broadcaster you have to know everything.”
That homework would translate on screen with Craig’s broadcast performance: equal parts entertaining and informative. He would accomplish the difficult task that is both teaching and promoting a sport to the viewers while they watch it transpire live.
Snowboarding has exploded onto the world stage, and Craig McMorris played his part in lighting the fuse.
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Main photo credit: Camp of Champions via photopin cc
