Kamloops skater Matt Berger in Tokyo, ready to compete in Olympics

Pro-skater Matt Berger has ollied his way from Kamloops to the Olympic stage, competing this week in the first ever Summer Games skateboarding event.

The Kamloops-born athlete is representing Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this weekend, and though he currently lives in California, he’s excited to rep the white and red.

“I’ve been competing and skating in big events for years. I'm excited, I get to represent the country that shaped me into who I am, on the world stage — doing what I love to do. So I just hope I make everybody proud,” Berger told Castanet.

Berger said he’s really looking forward to competing in Tokyo.

“It's an honour. And I've already met a lot of really cool inspiring people through it,” he said.

“There's no other place I'd rather represent more than my home country.”

Even after making the team, the skater said the news of making Team Canada took a while to sink in.

“It didn't feel real, honestly — once I actually finished skating, and I was told that I made it, it still didn't feel real,” he explained.

That was until the media requests started to flood in, and he got the clothes to dress the part.

“I got my Olympic uniform. So now it feels real,” Berger said.

But despite being ranked first in Canada for mens' street skating, and competing at an international level for years, Berger said he hadn’t anticipated skateboarding becoming an Olympic event.

“I never thought it would actually happen. It never even was on my radar,” he said.

“It wasn't on my radar until there was an announcement that I was apparently going, and then the Canadian organization asked me if I was interested in trying to pursue it.”

The addition of skateboarding events for the 2020 summer games was announced in June of 2016, along with four other sports that joined the olympic lineup.

But along with the international recognition, and his face on a cereal box, Berger hopes the addition of skateboarding to the games will make the sport more accessible to Canadian athletes.

“I can only hope that it is turns out to be really good thing, and it brings support across Canada, where we have indoor skate parks, in the same way that there's all sorts of indoor hockey rinks where guys can play throughout the summer months,” he said, explaining how the Canadian climate is affecting skaters.

“I grew up in Kamloops — but six months a year, I had nowhere to skate, because there's snow on the ground.”

The preliminary men's street skateboarding event is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the finals following later that evening.

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