Patrick Burgener: Music is my balance

Fun and creativity are the cornerstones of Patrick Burgener’s snowboarding career.

Even when the Swiss shredder was about to drop into the halfpipe final at Beijing 2022 alongside the likes of Shaun White, he was smiling and hi-fiving anyone within reach.

“I was like, this is the Olympics, I just want to have so much freakin fun!” he exclusively told Olympics.com.

And that fun was anything but confined to the sports arena in China.

From riding his suitcase around the airport, to wearing his famous dinosaur costume around the Winter Olympic Athletes Village and interviewing volunteers, his Instagram page was a constant source of laughter and amusement.

“I just wanted to make it a beautiful journey, and I did all those videos," he continued.

“People are like, “Don't you have to focus on the competition?” And I was like, “If I did that I would get too stressed out.” So I just went around having fun.

“It's funny because I went crazy viral and I think I'm famous in China, apparently!”

Eagle-eyed snowboard fans watching Beijing 2022 would have noticed the underside of Burgener’s snowboard, which gave away his other big passion in life: music.

When the Lausanne native found out that he had qualified for the halfpipe final in the athlete's waiting area, he turned his board over and started air playing the picture of the guitar underneath.

But this is no simply hobby. Burgener is actually a recording artist that regularly plays gigs when he’s not on the mountain.

“Music is my balance,” he continued.

“I was just snowboarding for two or three years, but I got bored and I started playing music. Then because of COVID, we couldn't do many concerts anymore. So I started making videos, and that's when my social media exploded.

“I'm not