Pat Burgener, 31, found himself unexpectedly away for a few days from Livigno, the venue for the snowboarding events at the Milan and Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
Last week, the athlete — one of Brazil’s medal hopes, he will make his Olympic debut representing the country after two editions competing for Switzerland — woke up without knowing where he was, what date he lived or how he had gotten there. The ceiling of a small hospital room in the Laax region of Switzerland was what I saw.
During the final training sessions for the halfpipe event, Burgener tried to execute a switch backside triple cork, a maneuver never performed in the history of the sport and which, according to him, could be the key to guaranteeing the gold medal he dreamed of. The result was a brutal fall and a brain concussion.
“I know this maneuver is difficult, but it could also give me first place here at the Games. I fell during training and woke up in the hospital, not even knowing who I was. I didn’t remember anything about what I had done. I asked: what day is it? It was an experience of someone who was dead and woke up alive”, he told Sheet.
The quick recovery allowed Burgener to confirm his presence in the race. But, more than competing, the snowboarder arrived in Milan-Cortina with the ambition of surpassing Brazil’s best result in Winter Games history — Isabel Clark’s ninth place in snowboard cross, obtained in Turin, in 2006, also in Italy.
“There is pressure. I came to bring the energy of Brazil with my music, with my style and with my results. I trained hard all year and I’m ready for the best performance possible. I think I’ll fight, at least, among the top nine”, he stated.
Snowboarding is the only Olympic snow sport contested with boards, not skis, and this edition will have five different categories, divided into 11 events: slopestyle, big air, parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross and halfpipe, the only one in which Brazil will be represented.
Burgener’s debut will be on Wednesday (11), starting at 3:30 pm (Brasília time). If he is among the top 12, he will compete in the final on Friday (13).
The halfpipe test takes place on a “U” shaped track, where athletes perform maneuvers at the ends and are judged on their difficulty. Each competitor is entitled to three descents, and only the highest score is counted.
Pat Burgener is no longer a rookie. He placed fifth in Pyeongchang, in 2018, and finished in 11th place in Beijing, in 2022, competing for Switzerland in both editions. The move to Brazil, the country where his mother grew up and where he lived for periods as a child, was, in addition to being strategic, cultural.
He describes Swiss rigidity as a contrast to the Brazilian mentality, which he defines as “open”. Hyperactive as a child, he started practicing capoeira and several other sports. Today, he tries his hand at surfing, skateboarding and kung fu.
“My mother always told me that Brazil is a wonderful country. I always had that mentality [brasileira] that the house is open to everyone. I wanted to show that you can be whatever you want: musician, snowboarder, surfer,” he said.
“For me, this project is to demonstrate that. I didn’t believe a year ago that I could defend Brazil’s colors at the Games, but now we are here.”
The experience of two Olympics gives him the necessary calm to deal with pressure, even in the face of strong competitors such as Australian Scotty James and the strong Japanese team.
While sharpening the edges of the board in Laax, Burgener also tuned the guitar. The athlete takes advantage of his Olympic visibility to release “O Dia”, his first song composed entirely in Portuguese.
For him, his musical career is far from a mere hobby. He takes it as seriously as sports, has a track with thousands of plays on Spotify and needs to stick to a performance schedule. This is what prevents him, according to him, from succumbing to tension.
“Music helps me put the pressure aside. It offers a vision that there is more to life than sport. It’s important to keep that feeling in my heart,” he said.
The “snow rockstar” routine included a tour with seven concerts in Europe during the summer and visits to Brazil for promotion. A schedule that he admits has made the last six months “the most difficult of his life”, balancing his physical peak with his artistic career. After competing in Livigno, he will perform at Casa Brasil, a space that brings together Brazilian sponsors, athletes and fans in Milan during the Olympic Games.
“I felt that life has to be enjoyed every day, every moment. We live for the moment, not for the result.”
