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Meet Winter Olympic bronze medalist Billy Morgan, Britain's most groundbreaking snowboarder

Morgan is the first British male snowboarder to stand on a Winter Olympic podium - REUTERS
Morgan is the first British male snowboarder to stand on a Winter Olympic podium - REUTERS

Billy Morgan is a groundbreaking snowboarder who in 2015 became the first person to land the biggest trick in the sport to date – the quad cork 1800. Always one to push the boundaries of what is humanly possible, Morgan’s drive to progress the sport has divided opinions across the snowboarding community. Some admire his incredible athletic ability, while others bemoan the current gymnastic aspect of the sport.

Morgan competed in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, placing 10th in the inaugural slopestyle event, but the inclusion of big air in Pyeongchang presented him with a better chance of winning an Olympic medal as it’s his stronger discipline – today Morgan won bronze in the men's snowboard big air final, making him the first British male snowboarder to stand on a Winter Olympic podium.

A talented acrobatic gymnast as a child, Morgan took up snowboarding uncharacteristically late, as a 14-year-old at Southampton dry slope – he didn’t ride on snow until he was 18. Morgan’s introduction to snowboarding coincided with a move away from competitive gymnastics.

“I quit structured gymnastics at 14 but carried on with adult evening sessions, which always got really experimental and crazy,” he says. “At the same time I was learning to snowboard and I loved it from the start.”

Morgan first made the snowboarding world sit up and take note in December 2011 while training in Breckenridge, Colorado. At 22 years old, after only four seasons riding on snow, he landed the world’s first triple corked backside rodeo 1260. In doing so, he joined an elite club of top riders capable of doing triple corked spins. A video of his jump, filmed by fellow British Olympic team rider Ben Kilner, has been viewed almost one million times on YouTube.

Morgan took the confidence from landing his first triple into the competition circuit. Within two seasons Morgan scored his first World Cup podium place, with a bronze medal in Sierra Nevada in 2013.

Billy Morgan’s superb physicality and spatial awareness on his snowboard is often credited to his gymnastic background, but British team snowboard coach Hamish McKnight sees it differently. “It actually goes much deeper than that,” McKnight says. “What Billy took from gymnastics was a commitment to progression for progression’s sake, and he works a little bit harder than everyone else in pursuit of those goals. The transfer of skills from gymnastics only got him so far – he still needs to be a great snowboarder to do the tricks he does.”

Billy Morgan at the Sochi Olympics - Credit: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Morgan finished in 10th place at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi Credit: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

At the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014, Morgan qualified for the slopestyle final, but a mistake on the rail section cost him a chance of a medal. Jenny Jones’s bronze medal in the women’s slopestyle guaranteed funding from UK Sport for the next four-year cycle, and the success of the sport as a whole convinced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to include big air in the programme for Pyeongchang 2018.

In order to compete in Sochi, Morgan had delayed an operation to repair a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament, a decision that eventually caught up with him the following season. In spring 2015, he had an appointment booked for a knee operation, but there was one thing he wanted to do before going under the surgeon’s knife. On a specially constructed jump in Livigno, Italy, Morgan’s drive for progression was taken to a new level when he landed the world’s first quad cork 1800.

Billy Morgan | Fast facts
Billy Morgan | Fast facts

“We worked to put all the pieces in place for that puzzle to come together, and in the moment I thought it was going to be quite matter of fact, but it totally wasn’t,” says Hamish McKnight. “It was a way bigger deal than we had teed it up to be. Because of the way Billy spins, he is upside down with his head below his feet at the end of the jump between 1620 and 1800 degrees of rotation. If he came up short then he would have landed on his head and gone to hospital.”

Fortunately, Morgan landed safely, saying afterwards: “It was maximum adrenaline combined with maximum happiness and relief. You can’t pay for that feeling.”

Bizarrely, though, his sense of achievement was less than when he landed the triple cork in 2011. “I feel like my first backside triple was a bigger thing. It felt really cool because I had made it into the club of professional riders that could do triples. With the quad it was just me who had done it and it was a much stranger feeling – not as rewarding somehow.”

Billy Morgan's quad cork 1800 - Credit: Red Bull Media House
Making history with a quad cork 1800 in Livigno Credit: Red Bull Media House

Later that year, a super-talented youngster from Norway, Marcus Kleveland, also produced a quad cork in training. Last season he became the first person to use the trick in competition, winning a silver medal with it at the 2017 Aspen X-Games Big Air.

However, the trick is not without its detractors, with some feeling that it has opened a Pandora’s box where gymnastic ability trumps style and grace. “The majority of the snowboard community doesn’t respect that I did a quad,” Morgan says. “It ruined snowboarding for them, apparently, and they hate on that because they’ve got nothing else to do.”

Morgan spent the summer of 2015 in rehab after a successful ACL repair, and was given a boost when he heard the IOC had included big air in the 2018 Games. As McKnight says: “When you are the guy who has done the biggest and most dangerous snowboard trick in the world, and then they put that discipline into the Olympics, you would be pretty stoked.”

Snowboard slopestyle: Graham Bell's guide
Snowboard slopestyle: Graham Bell's guide

In an unusual move, the IOC combined the quota spots for both slopestyle and big air, so all the riders picked for Pyeongchang will compete in both events. “The two disciplines aren’t really that far apart,” McKnight says. “But you can get away with being slightly less consistent in big air and have a less deep variety of tricks. Billy stands the best chance in big air, but if he were able to perform his best tricks in slopestyle he could do just as well.”

With the Olympics in mind, Morgan tries to manage his level of risk in training. “The Olympic qualification process has gone well, so I don’t want to be pushing anything. It sucks because I like doing random stuff, but if it’s not beneficial to my performance in Pyeongchang then I won’t be doing it because I don’t want to knacker myself.”

At 28 years old Morgan admits he is starting to feel like an elder statesman on the tour. “I don’t feel as confident going into this one, but I have the experience and I’m hoping that will help me out. The fire is still burning to get the job done but it’s just a bit harder, especially when you’re old and everything hurts all the time.”

Billy Morgan | Results
Billy Morgan | Results

That said, Morgan is pleased with the Olympic course design. “The jumps are going to be big, which is good – the more airtime the better for me. In some of the World Cups you see a lot of reservation in people’s runs, but in Pyeongchang there will be none of that. Everyone will just be sending it.”

No one has ever accused Morgan of holding back in snowboarding, or life in general, and come the Olympics – where fortune favours the brave – he will not be found lacking. McKnight sums up Morgan’s personality best: “Billy has a fantastic attitude towards skill acquisition, and he’s a bit of a mental case. When you combine those things together you get a great snowboarder.”

Billy Morgan’s main rivals

Canadian Mark McMorris is a serious contender in Pyeongchang, provided he can recover from a major crash he had last season while backcountry riding in Whistler. Others to watch out for are Marcus Kleveland from Norway, who was named rookie of the year in 2017; Stale Sandbech, also of Norway, the slopestyle silver medallist at Sochi 2014 and current big air World Champion; and Yuki Kadono from Japan, who was the first person to land a quad cork 1980 and is particularly strong in big air.

This interview was conducted at The British Championships in Laax, Switzerland, courtesy of Swiss International Airlines.