Patrick Burgener (born 1 June 1994) is a Swiss and Brazilian professional snowboarder, two-time Olympian and musician. He joined the Swiss national team at the age of 14 and landed the worldâÂÂs first Switch Backside Triple Cork 1440 in April 2011. Burgener competed for Switzerland in the men's halfpipe at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang where he finished 5th overall. He earned two bronze medals in the halfpipe events at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 and again in 2019. Burgener was named to his second Swiss Olympic Snowboard Freestyle Team on 18 January 2022. He represented Switzerland in the menâÂÂs halfpipe at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing where he qualified for the finals and placed 11th overall. His career results also include nine World Cup podiums, five European Cup podiums and seven Swiss Champion titles respectively in halfpipe and early on in big air.
In June 2025, Burgener announced that he would return to snowboarding representing Brazil at the start of the 2025/26 season. The change of nationality was made possible by the fact that Burgener's mother acquired Brazilian citizenship in her teenage years after fleeing from Lebanon as a child.
On 3 January 2026, Burgener finished third on men's halfpipe in Calgary, Canada, his tenth podium at FIS World Cup and latest since 2020. That result was a milestone for Brazil's Winter sports: It was the first podium of the South American nation at a freestyle skiing event on FIS Circuit.
Burgener was born in Lausanne to a Swiss father and a Lebanese mother whoâÂÂs parents fled the Lebanese Civil war in the 1980s and found refuge in Brazil.
Below is a selection of Burgener's major career highlights.
In addition to professional snowboarding, Burgener has been pursuing a parallel career in music since 2014. The singer-songwriter has released four EPs so far: The Route (2018), Icar (2019), Better Man (2020) and California Sun (2021). With over 4.4 million streams on Spotify, the song "Staring At The Sun" from the 2019 EP Icar remains Burgener's most listened-to track to date. His song "Allons Danser" ("How About A Dance") was commissioned as the 2020 Swiss Press Song for the 2020 Swiss Press Award. Burgener was named the SRF 3 Best Talent for August 2021, an award through which the Swiss Radio and Television honours up-and-coming music acts from Switzerland. His latest single "Work It Out" came out shortly before he competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Burgener has performed solo or with his band at various festivals and venues across Switzerland, including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Zermatt Unplugged, Sion sous les étoiles, Gurtenfestival, Caribana Festival, Kaufleuten and others. He has also performed in New York City and has been featured in Swiss Live Talents Showcases at Mondo.NYC, New YorkâÂÂs Annual Music, Arts & Technology Conference & Showcase Festival.
Burgener's first single of 2022, "Work It Out", was released on 28 January 2022, one week before the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where he was set to compete in the men's halfpipe. "I really wanted to release the song now because it's part of my Olympic story," as Pat explained, and to draw on it as a source of motivation and positive energy before the competition. He wrote this song with his brother, Max Burgener, during his healing period after a knee injury in a snowboarding accident in spring 2021. The song's message is that difficult situations â whether in relationships or in daily life â can be overcome with a positive attitude and a smile. "Work It Out" was featured on Swiss German-language Radio SRF 3 as the song of the day on 3 February 2022. "Work It Out" is the first song of Burgener's forthcoming first album to be released in the latter part of 2022. He also directed and edited the official music video that was filmed by John Osterman on a Malibu beach in California. In April 2022, Burgener released an acoustic version of this song and a new YouTube video, this time recorded and filmed in Lausanne, Switzerland.
âÂÂLowâ is the second single of Burgener's forthcoming debut album. He co-wrote the song with his brother Max and released it on 13 May 2022. The single was produced by Tom Fuller. This is not their first collaboration â Tom Fuller also produced Burgener's fourth EP California Sun (2021), and the single âÂÂWork It OutâÂÂ, Burgener's personal anthem for his 2022 Olympic snowboard odyssey. Burgener shot the official music video accompanying the release of "Low" during the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, where he competed for Switzerland in the menâÂÂs snowboard halfpipe. The music video is titled "Low: A Journey at the Beijing Olympic Games", and Pat directed and edited it by himself. Taking the viewers behind the scenes of Burgener's Olympicsàexperience at Beijing 2022, the video includes footage from his arrival at Beijing airport, the Olympic Village, and Olympic competition sites, as well as an excerpt from the RTS Swiss TV programme âÂÂAu coeur des Jeuxâ which featured him on 7 February 2022, in an episode called âÂÂJO, Made in China: Pat BurgenerâÂÂ.
Burgener's first language is French, and he also speaks English and Swiss German fluently. His mother and grandparents found refuge in Brazil during the Lebanese Civil War in the 1980s.