Mat Fraser

Mathew Edward Fraser (born 1990) is a retired Canadian-American professional CrossFit athlete, competing from 2014 to 2020.

Fraser came from an Olympic weightlifting background where he earned his first national title in weightlifting when he was 13 years old and was the school age champion in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

In 2009, a few weeks before he was due to compete in the Junior World Weightlifting Championship in Bucharest, Romania, he injured his back doing a clean-pull, which was further damaged in a squat after he was encouraged to train a week later.

Although in pain, he went to compete in the Championships, but after returning home it was found that he had suffered two breaks in his L5 vertebra.

It required him to wear a plastic brace on his torso for four months, but it failed to heal properly.

He refused spinal fusion surgery because it would have ended his athletic career, and elected instead for experimental surgery to have his back re-broken, inserting a protein sponge to help heal the bone with two plates and six screws attached to his lower spine.

The rehabilitation lasted a year, although he resumed training after four months.

After his surgery, Fraser enrolled at the Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University to study math and physics while he was on his rehabilitation.

He gave up weightlifting as a sport after two years in Michigan, and went to Rocky Mountain House in Alberta to work on the oil fields for four months, before returning to Vermont to start a double major course in mechanical engineering and business and a double minor in math and engineering management at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

In 2009, he became the junior national champion (77 kg category).

He injured his back in 2009, but not knowing that he had a broken vertebra, he went on to compete in the Junior World Weightlifting Championship in Bucharest, Romania, and ended up 15th out of 16 in the 77 kg men category.

After spinal surgery and rehabilitation, he competed in two American Weightlifting Open competitions, placing third in the 77 kg men division in 2010, and fifth in 85 kg men in 2011.

He retired from the sport after his final competition as funding was cut in 2011 after Chicago lost its bid for 2016 Summer Olympics and he lost interest in weightlifting.

Fraser started training in a CrossFit box (gym) while he was still competing in weightlifting – he was looking for a place to do Olympic lifts to keep himself fit when he was home in Vermont during a school break from Michigan.

Although not interested in CrossFit, he chose a CrossFit box (Champlain Valley CrossFit) because CrossFit boxes have the equipment used by Olympic lifters in towns without dedicated Olympic facilities.

When he returned to study in Vermont, he also trained at Champlain Valley, where he was introduced to CrossFit as a sport and was encouraged to compete in CrossFit events.

He was placed 8th in the 85 kg men category at the National Championships in 2012.

Fraser started competing at the end of 2012 and early 2013 in local competitions, and with only a few months of experience in CrossFit, he finished fifth in the CrossFit North East Regionals, which was not high enough to qualify for the CrossFit Games.

For a time he also competed as part of a team.

Fraser started training in a CrossFit gym when he was 22, and competed in CrossFit events in 2013, but initially, he competed only to earn some pocket money while he was studying.

He made his debut at the 2014 CrossFit Games and took second place after a strong performance.

Although he had originally intended to pursue a career in engineering, a stint as a summer intern in an aerospace company in 2014 convinced him to focus on CrossFit.

He was with the New York Rhinos team in the NPGL in 2014, and in the Built By Bergeron team in 2015, which finished third in the CrossFit Team Series that year.

In 2014, Fraser won the North East Regionals, which gained him some attention.

In his first appearance at the CrossFit Games, he ended the competition as runner-up to Rich Froning.

He had seven top 10 finishes in that year's events, tying for first place with Froning in the Overhead Squat, and finishing second in Midline March and Thick 'N Quick.

He also won the Rookie of the Year award.

He was a favorite to win in 2015 with the retirement of four-time defending champion Rich Froning Jr.., but was edged out in the final event by Ben Smith.

The following year, Fraser took first place by a record margin, and won all the following four CrossFit Games.

Fraser is the first athlete to have won five CrossFit Games titles, winning the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 CrossFit Games consecutively.

He is widely considered to be the most dominant and successful individual male athlete in the sport of CrossFit.

Fraser has a background in Olympic weightlifting and was a junior national champion.

By the time he graduated with degrees in engineering and business in May 2016, he had established himself enough as a CrossFit athlete to commit to the sport full time.

The 2020 Games were his final Games, which he won with a greatly extended record margin of victory of 545 points, and set a record of five consecutive championships wins.

Mat Fraser was born to Canadian Olympic figure skaters Don Fraser and Candace Jones in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and spent his early childhood in Sharbot Lake.

His mother worked as a doctor while his father was a stay-at-home dad.

The family moved to Colchester, Vermont, in the United States in his early childhood.

He was athletic from a young age, learning to swim when he was one, water-ski at 18 months, downhill ski at two, and walk on hands for a dozen paces when he was seven.

He played football in middle school and took up weightlifting when he was 12 years old.

After graduating from Colchester High School, he started to train full time in Olympic weightlifting at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as a resident athlete on scholarship.