About Matt Carter
Young Achiever: All downhill for mountain bike racer Matt Carter
Matt Carter is what you’d call a thrill seeker.
The talented Wodonga mountain bike racer has spent most of his life on two wheels.
Carter, 18, started riding and racing bikes and motorbikes from the age of four, before taking it to the mountain.
He got his first mountain bike at 13 and learned to ride cross country, but, with a little nudge from his mates, made the switch to downhill racing.
And he hasn’t looked back since.
“I’ve been doing downhill for nearly three years now,” Carter said.
“It’s a huge adrenaline rush.
“I haven’t had too many big crashes, but the small ones knock you back for a little bit.
“I’ve seen a lot of broken bones and stuff like that.”
He quickly made a name for himself in the new discipline, representing Australia at the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns – finishing 13th in the junior category.
Carter remained in the national setup last year and was again part of the world championships, this time in Switzerland, where he showed improvement to place 11th overall.
He also raced at an event in Austria as part of the same trip.
“When I went to Austria, I really liked that and the atmosphere was really good there,” Carter added.
“I went to New Zealand at the start of last year to race the Oceania championships, but the rest has just been around Australia.
“There’s also a lot of tracks in Australia I like.
“A lot of people in the downhill industry are jealous of what we’ve got around here.”
The sport is becoming increasingly popular in the North East region, with Wooragee’s Dean Lucas and Yackandandah brothers Oliver and Ben Zwar, the winner of last year’s Young Achiever, among the competitors on the downhill circuit.
This year, Carter has taken the step up from juniors to the elite category, with 2019 looming as a massive campaign for the young gun.
“I’ve been doing the Victorian series and a few national rounds the past few weeks,” Carter said.
“The national championships are in about three weeks and the Oceania championships follow that, so I’ll see how I go there.
“I’m at the gym nearly every morning, I trail ride as much as I can and downhill ride as much as I can.
“I work on everything, you’ve got to have upper body strength to hold on as well.”
Carter is among the nine nominees vying for the Norske Skog Young Achiever of the Year award, to be presented at Albury’s Commercial Club on Friday night.