Mike Schultz

Mike Schultz showed it is never too late to join the party. Against talented athletes in their prime or even half his age, the 37-year-old became a two-time Paralympic medallist in his debut at PyeongChang 2018.

Schultz’s gold medal in the snowboard-cross SB-LL1 and silver in the banked slalom were the climax of his progress over the past two seasons.

Also known as “Monster Mike,” the US rider became a serious contender for Paralympic gold following the 2017 World Championships in Big White, Canada. He challenged Netherlands’ flying Dutchman Chris Vos in the banked slalom, coming up short of the gold. He also fell short of the snowboard-cross podium. But Schultz was only warming up.

He completed a successful World Cup 2017-18 season in which he took the overall crystal globe, and it set him up for success at PyeongChang 2018.

Now the only prize missing from his collection is a world title, which he can add in Pyha, Finland.

Schultz had his left leg amputated following a professional snocross race accident in 2008. He engineered his own prosthetic knee and got back into sports, winning a silver in motocross adaptive at the X Games. Schultz saw the need for advancements in prosthetics, leading him to find BioDapt, Inc. in July 2010. His products have been instrumental in the development of prosthetics for action sports athletes and wounded soldiers, and he has been working on an improvement to the Versa Foot, which was named one of the Top 10 Inventions of 2013 by Popular Science magazine.