After spending almost 10 years racing and working in the motocross industry, it all came to a crashing end in June of 2003. I was involved in a car accident with Travis Pastrana while staying at his house. I received many severe injuries from the accident; the worst was a bruise to my spinal cord, which left me paralyzed from the chest down. After being told that I would never walk again and a lengthy stay in ICU and in patient rehab, I headed home, with a shiny new wheelchair. And a new outlook on life. I wasn't going to let what the doctors told me get me down.

After months of rehab and hard work, I was able to take some steps on my own. It was a long process after that, but after a few years I was able to begin running again. With a new work ethic and new goals in life, I became a personal trainer and began working with clients on weight loss and other areas of rehab. Once I had recovered to the point of being able to run and ride a bicycle again, I had an urge to be competive again. From that point on, I decided to focus my efforts on training to race triathlons. I set my goals high and in November of 2006 I went to Panama City to watch Ironman Florida and signed up the next day for the 2007 event.

In February of 2007 I decided to move to San Diego to take an offer working at a spinal cord rehab center. I felt that the center had a much different approach to spinal cord injuries and it was a great fit for me. Now I was in the hot bed of triathlon training and able to help others that had been hurt like myself. I was ready to put down the miles necessary for my IronMan debut coming up in November 2007 in Florida.

I can be reached at:

Email: mattbigos@earthlink.net
Cellphone: 321-543-5226
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/matt414
AOL IM: mattmx414