Born in Zams, Tyrol, Matt made his World Cup debut in December 1999. He claimed 15 World Cup victories: 14 in slalom and one super combined. Matt is also a two-time world champion in slalom, with titles in 2001 and 2007. With a remarkably long career as a top slalom racer, he is the second oldest (after André Myhrer, who won gold in 2018) to win an Olympic gold medal in slalom skiing (in Sochi at the 2014 Winter olympics) and the oldest to win a (regular) World Cup slalom race. Matt also has the third longest time interval between first and last World Cup victories (13 years, 10 months, and 22 days), after Ingemar Stenmark and Didier Cuche.