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When he was 27, snow cross racer Mike Schultz (who received the nickname “Monster Mike” due to his famend fearlessness) drifted off beam in a race, flew off his snowmobile, and obliterated his knee. It required a number of surgical procedures and a number of days in a coma to avoid wasting his life. Finally, his medical crew needed to amputate his leg.
Moderately than hand over his love of motion sports activities, Schultz engineered his personal prosthetic knee and based his personal high-performance prosthetic firm, BioDapt. His prostheses use a patented proprietary linkage system and mountain bike shocks to dial in such exact efficiency, enabling him to return to compete on the highest ranges of the game. Since 2008, he has received a number of Winter Paralympics and World Championships for adaptive snowboard cross and banked slalom.
Extra importantly, nevertheless, excessive athletes, amputees, and veterans all use his prosthetics. That features a lot of his opponents, whose gear he generally finally ends up repairing proper earlier than an occasion. “You by no means get the temptation to, you already know, ‘repair’ a competitor’s Moto Knee?” I requested him over Zoom when WIRED caught up with him for a couple of minutes at coaching camp for the 2026 Paralympic Video games. (I additionally made a bit of wrenching gesture.)
“I simply inform them, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, there’s truly a recall on this one. I’ll get it again to you in April,’” Schultz says. “Be sure you put the ‘simply kidding’ half in once you write that!” Right here’s what Schultz is bringing to Cortina.
His Prothesis
Atypical prostheses are high-quality for strolling round and going to the grocery retailer. However for snowboard cross—a sport the place you fly over jumps and take hairpin turns at excessive speeds—you want a rugged, sturdy instrument that may stand up to low temperatures, endure bodily abuse, and take up exact ranges of stress rapidly. Schultz’s Moto Knee 2 and Versa Foot 2 are each tuned exactly for the occasion. “The alignment is essential, in any other case you are not going to have the ability to roll over to your toe edge or heel edge to make a flip,” Schultz says. “Adjustments in an angle by half or 1 / 4 activate a set screw are noticeable. Having these alignment choices on my snowboard leg is essential for that final efficiency.”
The Helmet
Giro
Owen Spherical MIPS Helmet
After his board, the primary piece of security gear that Schultz all the time has is his helmet. He would not know the model; I checked out it within the Zoom when he held it up. It’s a Giro-brand snow-sports-specific spherical helmet with Mips (an acronym for Multi-directional Affect Safety System) that reduces rotational impression and mind trauma within the occasion of a crash.
A Good Multi-Device
“As an amputee athlete, my toolkit is extraordinarily vital,” Schultz says. He all the time carries each an entire instrument equipment with an entire spare equipment for each prostheses, together with spare nuts and bolts in case he has to rebuild the complete factor from scratch in 5 minutes. “It is all able to go in case I’ve a difficulty, like a crash or a break or one thing,” he says. Along with Allen wrenches, a crescent wrench, and pliers, he additionally retains his Gerber multi-tool in his equipment. This one is gentle, pocketable, and has instruments that you’ll want to alter snowboard bindings, like screwdrivers.
The Board
Schultz has labored with Donek Snowboards for his total racing profession; he’ll most likely carry six Donek B-1s to Cortina. His prostheses work so effectively that proper now, he is driving a typical racing board constructed to his dimensions. “Earlier on, we tried doing customized work with torsional resistance to accommodate, you already know, me as an amputee and having much less management with my ankle pedaling or my ankle stress,” Schultz says. “However proper now, I am working all the usual flex patterns.”
His Fortunate Bear
Schultz by no means goes anyplace with out his Fortunate Bear. His daughter, Lauren, was 4 or 5 (she’s 12 now) and she or he snuck Fortunate Bear into his bag behind his again for his first snowboard cross competitors. “I used to be like, man, he is this large!” Schultz says, gesturing. “I haven’t got room for Fortunate Bear! I gotta carry spare legs and stuff!” It seems that Lauren was proper, and Schultz has been a world champion in a number of adaptive sports activities—snow bike, snow cross, snowboard cross, and motocross—ever since.
“The good half about Fortunate Bear is now Lauren is competing in gymnastics, so she has her personal mini Fortunate Bear that goes into her backpack each time she competes,” Schultz says. And naturally, they match. He has an enormous one, and she or he has a small one.
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