max parrot

Max Parrot was born on June 6, 1994, in Cowansville, Quebec, and was raised near the Bromont ski area. He began skiing at age three and discovered snowboarding at age nine. His father, Alain Parrot, was an alpine ski racer and Canadian water ski jump champion. Parrot’s determination was evident early on; at age 9, after a friend received a snowboard for Christmas, he spent the following summer mowing lawns to save money for his own board. His parents allowed him to pursue snowboarding professionally on the condition that he completed high school before traveling the world for competitions.

Parrot’s professional snowboarding career began after he placed third at the St-Sauveur Shakedown at age 16. He rapidly gained recognition on the World Snowboard Tour, becoming the World Snowboard Tour Big Air Overall Champion in 2014. Throughout his career, Parrot has earned 14 X Games medals, including eight gold and six silver. In 2014, he became only the second male to win both snowboard big air and slopestyle at the same X Games in Aspen. He made his Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, finishing fifth in slopestyle after being the top qualifier. Four years later, he secured his first Olympic medal, a silver in slopestyle, at PyeongChang 2018. His career includes multiple historic firsts, such as landing the first backside triple cork in an X Games slopestyle event in 2013 and the first switch quadruple underflip in big air competition at the 2017 X Games in Aspen.

A significant turning point in Parrot’s career occurred in December 2018 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He underwent six months of chemotherapy, which ended his 2018 season. Following his recovery, Parrot made a remarkable comeback, winning gold in big air at the X Games Norway in August 2019, just two months after completing treatment. This was followed by more gold medals in big air at the Beijing World Cup and the X Games Aspen in 2020. At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, less than three years after his cancer treatment, Parrot won Canada’s first gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle and a bronze medal in the men’s big air event, accumulating three Olympic medals in total. He later announced a break from competition for the 2022-2023 season but continues training, and has since welcomed two sons, Blake (born May 2022) and Louka (born December 2023), with his fiancée, Kayla.