THE Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics is only a month away but Chris McCormick still has plenty of work to do to ensure he is on the plane to Beijing.
McCormick is sitting right on the borderline of qualification and with the Olympic slopestyle field having space for only 30 men, the 21-year-old knows the next three weeks will prove pivotal.
The penultimate World Cup of the season begins on January 6 in Mammoth, California with only this and the final World Cup, in Font Romeu, remaining for Scotland’s top freestyle skier to get the results needed to qualify for the Olympics.
However, having recorded his best result last month in finishing seventh in the slopestyle World Cup in Stubei in Austria, McCormick knows that more of the same will see him make his Olympic debut.
“It’ll definitely be tough to make the team and right now, I’m hovering on that marker,” he says. “Before Stubei, the odds were probably against me making it but after a really good result there, I put myself in the mix. It will still take two really big results but it’s definitely something I’m pushing for.
“Two more top 10s would definitely do it and given that’s the result I’ve just come off, in terms of confidence, I couldn’t ask to be in a better place.
“But having said all of that, I do know it’s still a really big ask because there’s a lot of guys fighting for those last few spots.”
Despite his family not being skiing aficionados, McCormick and his two older brothers developed a love for skiing at a young age thanks to living only five minutes from the dry ski slope in Bearsden.
It quickly became apparent they all had talent, with his two brothers becoming snowboarders while McCormick was attracted to freestyle skiing. Middle brother Matt would almost certainly have been headed to Beijing had he not suffered a long-term concussion in early 2020 which severely hampered his ability to compete for more than a year.
While McCormick admits there was healthy competition between the trio in their younger years, his overriding feeling is of how fortunate he has been to have his brothers to ask for advice, as well as push him on.
“I consider myself really lucky that I grew up with two brothers doing this too,” he says. “Because they snowboard and I ski, we’re not in direct competition but there still was a bit of competitiveness.
“It was more that I always had someone there with me though, I wasn’t on my own at the dry slope.
“It’s really unfortunate that Matt won’t be in Beijing but he’s been great with me, I couldn’t have asked for better support. Before the 2018 Olympics, he was in a really similar situation to the one I’m in now, he was just outside of qualifying and ended up one spot outside of making it.
“That’s been really helpful for me because he knows what this situation is like and he’s helped manage my expectations and let me know what the process is like. I’m really lucky to have that.”
With slopestyle having only been introduced to the Olympic programme in 2014, McCormick did not grow up dreaming of becoming an Olympian.
“When I was growing up, it was all about the X Games,” he says. “If you win an X Games gold medal it’s probably comparable to winning Olympic gold in most other sports.
“But it was a huge thing when we got into the Olympics and it really made everyone sit up and take notice. Even though the Olympics hasn’t always been a dream of mine it’s still hard not to think about it because the Olympics are absolutely huge and I’d love to be there.”
The importance of the next few weeks has meant McCormick’s festive period has been quiet. A flying visit back home from his base in Switzerland to Bearsden was all his schedule allowed but McCormick is in no doubt it will be worth it.
“I couldn’t afford to eat and drink too much but it’s a sacrifice that’s definitely worth it,” he says. “Whatever ends up happening, I want to make sure I’ve given myself the best possible chance of making it to Beijing.”
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