McMorris thankful for bronze after 2017 crash left him 'pretty much dead'

It may not have been the gold medal that he seemed destined for after an incredible second run in the slopestyle final, but Mark McMorris is more than happy with his bronze.

The 24-year-old joined teammate Max Parrot on the podium Sunday to give Canada its first medals at PyeongChang 2018.

For McMorris, who also won bronze at Sochi 2014, the medal represents an incredible achievement given his amazing journey to South Korea.

"It's just a reminder to me of the hard work I put in to come back to snowboarding," McMorris told Sportsnet's Arash Madani. "I'm thankful I snowboard for a living, because I was pretty much dead a year ago."

His proclamation of being "pretty much dead a year ago," was not made for dramatic effect, it's actually true for the Regina-born star.

Most athletes spend the years leading up to the Olympics training exhaustively for their events. This was McMorris just 11 months ago:

A horrific accident in the British Columbia backcountry left McMorris down and in need of a helicopter evacuation. McMorris broke 17 bones and also suffered a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen. Doctors opted to put him in a medically induced coma before conducting surgeries on his jaw, arm, lung, and spleen.

McMorris somehow battled back to return to the scene in November with a gold medal in big air at an event in Beijing. He followed that up with a bronze in slopestyle at the X Games.

With the big air competition still to come in PyeongChang, McMorris has another chance to grab a medal, but after battling back to find the podium Sunday, he's already proven he's a champion in every sense of the word.