Image credit: Matt Berger/Instagram

By Marty Hastings

TWO-TIME OLYMPIAN

Berger of Kamloops to become two-time Olympian after booking ticket to Paris

Jun 26, 2024 | 9:53 AM

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIF. — Soon-to-be-two-time Olympian Matt Berger posted a photo on Instagram of himself cradling the first love of his life, a skateboard that is nearly taller than him in the halcyon days childhood snapshot.

“That’s kind of where my love of skateboarding started and where the dream began,” said Berger, noting the picture was taken in Kamloops on his family’s backyard patio/skate park.

“It’s been a long journey. I started skating in 2000 and grew up in Kamloops, so stoked to share it with everybody.”

Berger posted the photo on Sunday (June 23), not long after securing his ticket to the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris at the final Olympic Qualifier Series event in Budapest, Hungary.

“It’s huge, for sure,” said a jetlagged Berger, speaking to CFJC Today on Tuesday (June 25) from his home in Huntington Beach, Calif. “The way the last Olympics went, I really had to take it on the chin and dissect what I could and learn from it and move forward.

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“There were definitely a couple times where I debated if I even wanted to do it, but I just love to skate, I love to compete. I just naturally gravitated back, so I’m on Cloud 9 right now to be going back for a second Olympics.”

Read more here about Berger’s struggles in Tokyo.

Three Canadians – Berger, Cordano Russell and Ryan Decenzo — are among the 22 skaters who qualified for the 2024 Games in the men’s street discipline.

Berger was in good position heading into the do-or-die Budapest event this past weekend, but within the realm of heartbreak if he did not escape the preliminary round and qualify for semifinal action.

“It was definitely the most amount of pressure I’ve felt and saw on everybody heading into this event,” Berger said. “We all knew what it meant.”

He qualified for the semifinal round to earn another shot at the Games.

“I came dead last in the Olympics,” Berger said. “That is every athletes’ nightmare. For me, it was definitely a tough one to handle, but it kind of brought things back to reality.

“If anything, it allowed me to let go of that fear of failure and decide to push forward. I’m stoked to go back and I’ll definitely be giving it my absolute all in this Olympics in Paris.”

THE SCHEDULE

Skateboarding events are slated to run from July 27 to Aug. 7 in Paris, with men’s street action scheduled to begin on July 27.

Fay de Fazio Ebert of Toronto is one to watch at the Games.

The 14-year-old Toronto product is ranked 23rd in the world in women’s park and won gold at the Pan Am Games last October in Santiago, Chile.