Bretz was born in Anaheim on December 19, 1990[2][1] to Greg Sr. and Allison Bretz, who divorced a few years later. His father sold his machine shop in Orange County around this time, spent two months hiking in the southern Sierra Nevada with his 5-year-old son, then moved to Mammoth Lakes to take a job working at Mammoth Mountain. Bretz first snowboarded on June Mountain at age 5. Though he lived mainly with his mother in nearby Bishop, he saw his father often and the two developed a close-knit relationship.[6][4] He played tight end, earning All-CIF honors, and graduated from Mammoth High School in 2009.[7][6][4][8][9]
In February 2011, Bretz finished second in the Dew Tour's Snowbasin super-pipe competition after Luke Mitrani.[14] He finished fifth in the men's super-pipe at the 2013 Winter X Games in Aspen.[2] That December, he beat Shaun White for the Dew Cup with a score of 91.40 to 90.40, the first snowboarder in nearly four years to dethrone him.[6][1][15][16] He finished first at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe, qualifying him for the Sochi Olympics.[6][5] Prior to leaving for Russia, he won bronze at the Winter X Games.[1] He placed 12th in the men's half pipe final at the Olympics.[6][1][9]
In early 2016, he qualified at #1 for the finals of the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Park City.[17] He qualified at #1 again the following year at Breckenridge, but the competition was cancelled due to bad weather.[8] At the 2018 competition, he placed third at Mammoth Mountain behind Chase Josey and Ben Ferguson with a score of 81.50. He competed but did not qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics.[1]
Personal life
In 2010, Bretz was dating fellow Olympic snowboarder Elena Hight.[7][4] As of 2019, he and his wife Meredith were living in Crested Butte, Colorado with their two children.[18]
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