BERGER Matt

Canada

Skateboarding

Date of Birth: 10 Oct 1993

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Place of birth: KAMLOOPS, BC

Birth Country:

Canada

Place of residence : UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Skateboarding	Men's Street	20

Schedule

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Biographical Information

Highlights

Athlete:

World Skate World Championships

Year	Location	Street
2021	Rome, ITA	6
2019	Sao Paulo, BRA	13
2018	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	23

X Games

Year	Location	Street
2019	Minneapolis, MN, USA	18
2017	Minneapolis, MN, USA	17
2015	Austin, TX, USA	9

WS SLS World Tour

Year	Location	Street
2021	Rome, ITA	6
2019	London, GBR	6
2019	Los Angeles, CA, USA	6
2019	Sao Paulo, BRA	6
2018	Huntington Beach, CA, USA	23
2018	London, GBR	23
2018	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	23
2017	Barcelona, ESP	35
2017	Chicago, IL, USA	35
2017	Munich, GER	35
2017	Tampa, FL, USA	35

Dew Tour

Year	Location	Street
2019	Long Beach, CA, USA	4

Hobbies:

Playing basketball, cycling, spending time with friends. (olympic.ca, 01 Jan 2021)

Occupation:

Athlete

Languages spoken:

English

Debut:

Turned professional in 2015

Injuries:

In 2015 he underwent right knee surgery. Two years later he had further surgery in which cartilage and bone from a cadaver was implanted into his right knee.. (olympic.ca, 01 Jan 2021; cbc.ca, 29 Oct 2020; xgames.com, 01 Jan 2020)

Start:

He took up skateboarding at age five and began competing three years later. "I skated in Kamloops until I was 18 and then moved to Vancouver." (olympic.ca, 01 Jan 2021; manifestosport.com, 01 Jan 2020; skateboarding.transworld.net, 23 Apr 2015)

Reason:

His grandmother Renee gave him a skateboard when he was four years old. He did not touch it for over a year, until he was inspired by his cousin to give it a try. His parents originally enrolled him in hockey, baseball, football and hip-hop classes in Kamloops, BC, but found that skateboarding suited him the most. "When I got introduced to skateboarding, it just kind of captured me, just the feeling of it. When I started seeing videos of other skateboarders, I just knew it was my thing. I was just extremely obsessive with it. My teachers were constantly trying to talk to my parents to get me on Ritalin [for attention deficit disorder]. I couldn't pay attention to anything in class. But as soon as it came down to skateboarding, I was locked in, I was hyper focused, and I skated for hours." (dailyhive.com, 15 Jun 2021; cbc.ca, 29 Oct 2020)

Philosophy:

"Rest at the end." (olympic.ca, 01 Jan 2021)

General Interest

Preferred stance
Regular (dewtour.com, 01 Jan 2019)

General
CAREER-THREATENING INJURY
He suffered a bone bruise to his right knee which led to surgery in 2015 and a further bone implant surgery two years later. "I'm very, very grateful that I had the access to doctors and was able to do such a unique procedure and it actually be successful. It was kind of the last straw for me because I didn't really know if I was going to be able to get my career back or not. I had the first traditional surgery done and it didn't work. The health of my knee was kind of questionable if I was going to be able to withstand all of the back-to-back events leading into the 2020 Olympic Games. I was worried I was going to get the Olympics and my body was going to be so beat up because of the bone bruise I had on my knee. Because it got postponed [due to the COVID-19 pandemic] I was able to just rest it. My knee is completely fine and I don't feel any pain at all anymore." (cbc.ca, 29 Oct 2020; xgames.com, 01 Jan 2020; castanetkamloops.net, 26 Mar 2018)

OLYMPIC INCLUSION
He believes the inclusion of skateboarding at the Olympic Games is necessary for the sport. "I think it's given skateboarders this opportunity to get support from places that I think once kind of looked down on skateboarding. When people who don't know about skateboarding ask me what I do, when they hear that I'm an Olympic skateboarder, it gives some sort of relativity to average people, instead of them just thinking I'm some, like, misfit skateboarder." (cbc.ca, 29 Oct 2020)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos