A Canadian snowboarder won an astonishing Olympic gold medal, just 3 years after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer

• Snowboarder Max Parrot was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in late 2018.
• On Monday, he won Olympic slopestyle gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Canada's Max Parrot won Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold on Monday, just three years after being diagnosed with cancer.

The 27-year-old's score of 90.96 landed him the title, with China's 17-year-old Su Yiming taking silver, and Parrot's countryman Mark McMorris winning bronze.

Team USA's Red Gerard, who took gold four years ago at Pyeongchang, could only manage fourth.

Parrot was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in late 2018, however after 12 rounds of chemotherapy, he announced he was cancer free in July 2019.

"It feels amazing," he told BBC Sport.

"So much went by in those last four years. The last time I was at the Olympics, in Pyeongchang, I got a silver medal, and then I had to go through cancer. It was a nightmare — it's so hard to describe what I've been through.

"You have no cardio, you have no energy, you have no muscles. To be back out here, at the Olympics, on a podium again but with a gold medal, it feels amazing."

Parrot finished 10th in qualifying on Sunday with a best score of 70.11, but a solid first run in Monday's final moved him into third, before his second run score put him out of reach.

"I laid down the best run of my entire life," said Parrot.

"I'm so proud of every feature, how I was able to clear them, and I'm really stoked with my score."

Parrot's gold medal was not without controversy, however, with the judges failing to notice that he missed a grab on his winning run.

As Parrot unleashed one of the many spins and flips in his run, he missed grabbing his board, and instead grabbed his knee. This should have been penalized by the judges according to the competition's rules, but they failed to spot it, leaving Parrot to get his 90.96 score.

"We're in a really difficult position, knowing that he's in a gold medal position that by the incredibly high standards the judges have set, he doesn't deserve," BBC commentator Ed Leigh said on the UK broadcast of the event.

Last month, Parrot released a movie about his battle with cancer titled: "Max. Life As A Gold Medal."

The film follows the snowboarder across a period of eight months, starting with his diagnosis and ending with his eventual return to the sport.

50% of the income from the movie is to be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, for whom Parrot is a spokesperson.

In an Instagram post announcing the release of the movie, Parrot said: "3 years ago, exactly today, I did one of the hardest task I've ever got to do. I announced to the world by a press conference that I had cancer.

"It's always easy to speak about positive stuff, but when it comes down to speak about your biggest fear, about [how] you may die in a couple of months, it's desperately hard."