Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot said it felt “amazing” to win his first Olympic gold medal on Monday, three years after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The 27-year-old took home the gold in the men’s snowboarding slopestyle event in Beijing. It was the “biggest run” of his career, Parrot told reporters, with two triples in a row.

After his diagnosis in December 2018, Parrot went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy, declaring in July 2019 that he “won” his battle against cancer. There were “really hard times” he said, adding that he “felt like I was a lion in a cage because I wasn’t able to do what I love the most, which is snowboarding. That was my first time in my life that I had to put my snowboard in the closet. Snowboarding is all I know, so it was really hard for me.”

Parrot said he no longer takes life for granted, and has a more positive outlook on things. “Every time I strap my feet onto my snowboard, I appreciate it so much more than before,” he said. “I appreciate being able to do my passion every day.”