Matt
Cogar
United States
·
Athletics
Date of birth | November 13, 1986 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | Webster Springs, West Virginia |
Age | 39 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2009 |
Disciplines | Sport Various |
Matt grew up in a tiny town outside of Webster Springs, West Virginia, an area that’s produced some of the country’s finest timbersports athletes. His father, Paul, was a competitive lumberjack, but Matt says his parents never pushed him into the sport. They waited until he asked for it.
When a new youth competition debuted, when Matt was 12, he said to his dad, “I want to know how to chop so I can compete in that.” So his dad taught him how to wield an axe and a crosscut saw and chop and saw through wood as fast as possible. In the first competition Matt entered at 12 – an underhand chop contest – he took sixth place (out of six youth competitors). By the next year, he was winning the under-18 contests.