Mat Barton before the start of a race last year.
(Photo: Kris Schamp)
Offers of help, positive thoughts and prayers are pouring in from the community tonight as we learn that 31-year-old Portland resident Mat Barton is paralyzed from the chest down following a crash during a mountain bike race at Portland International Raceway on Monday night.
Barton, a skilled and experienced racer, was competing in a singlespeed race at the Portland Short Track series when he hit a series of large bumps, got thrown off balance, and fell head first at high speed. Kenji Sugahara, executive director of the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association, says Barton suffered a serious spinal cord injury. He underwent surgery at Legacy Emanuel Hospital last night to remove broken vertebra. The surgery was successful, but doctors believe his paralysis will be permanent.
According to a journal being kept by a family member, Barton remains in the Intensive Care Unit and is already working on his physical therapy and recovery.
Sugahara told us that injuries of this sort are extremely rare. The last spinal cord injury that happened during an OBRA race, he said, dates back to the 1980s. “As with any athletic event there are certain risks that we take. What Mat experienced was an atypical event.”
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