Like every other 44-year-old on the planet, you’ll wake up with strange pains and need a little more time to rev your engines than you did a decade ago. Gray hair appears non-stop in the beard and less frequently in the upper part, an area often covered by an upside-down hat. Baumgartner, once a college football player at Northern Michigan, has had to switch from power lifting to fast-twitch and flexibility exercises to reduce the risk of injury and ensure all of his energy is channeled into the things that will be important when he gets on a snowboard.
Advertisement
But the motivation to endure every step of a painstaking process, day after day, just for one more chance to make it to the Olympics? Even after his long-awaited gold medal in 2022, Baumgartner still can’t get enough of this part.
“You’d think he’d get old,” said Baumgartner, who will go to Milan Cortina trying to break his own record as the oldest snowboarding medalist in Olympic history. “But I still love it as much as I did when I started. I think part of the reason I didn’t burn out is because I was 20 before I even started snowboard cross. I’m making up for lost time on the front end.”
Four years ago in Beijing, Baumgartner was heartbroken and close to tears after failing to reach the semifinals in men’s snowboard cross, an event where competitors race through a course of turns and jumps in an elimination format until four competitors remain for the final race. It was just a small mistake, Baumgartner said, but it cost him: at 40 and still medalless in his fourth Olympics, he could feel time running out.
But the mixed team snowboard cross event, new to the Olympics four years ago, was their salvation. Along with Lindsey Jacobellis, whose own Olympic history had been punctuated by disappointment, they were so elated to win gold that it didn’t even matter that their friends and family were thousands of miles away due to COVID rules implemented by Beijing that made travel nearly impossible.
Advertisement
“To finally end that after years of failing and falling short, nothing could have silenced that celebration,” Baumgartner said. “Then when I got home, it got crazy.”
(Tim Clayton via Getty Images)
Despite the subzero temperatures, it seemed like the entire population of Iron River, Michigan, was there to celebrate Baumgartner with a parade, part of which he rode through in a car with his children and part of which he walked with his leashed dog, high-fiving fans waving American flags in a scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
For many, it would have been the perfect way to end an improbable career that has taken him from the snowy winters of Michigan around Lake Superior to mountains around the world.
Advertisement
But Baumgartner wasn’t done chasing medals. And who knows, maybe Milano Cortina won’t be his last hurray. The idea of competing in Salt Lake City in 2032, when he will be 52 years old, has undoubtedly crossed his mind.
“I had my best career at 40,” he said. “You never know. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely we are doing everything we can and we are using all the technology and everything we have at our disposal to be able to be better at this.”
Age is a real thing and has consequences that he feels every day, but Baumgartner is determined to stay young enough to compete, even with the sacrifices and inconveniences it requires. Twice a week, Baumgartner drives 90 minutes from his home in Iron River to the gym where he trains in Marquette, Michigan, sleeps in his van, works out the next day and then returns home. And he never misses a session.
“Don’t believe the excuses,” he said. “Find a way to make it happen. If I stop moving, I’ll be in big trouble. But if I keep moving and doing things and take care of my body and train, I think I’ll be fine.”
Advertisement
The training is different now than at the beginning of his career. These are explosive, fast-twitch movements, designed to get you moving quickly out of the door before gravity and experience take over. It’s all tightly controlled by the technology so you can back off if the machines say you’re pushing so hard you risk injuring yourself.
In a sport where the optimal age is generally around 20, it’s what Baumgartner must do to remain relevant enough for his skills and knowledge to overcome physical decline.
“This bus will go fast down the hill, but I have to get it out of the garage fast enough,” he said. “As long as I can maintain that speed and stay in the hunt, anything is possible.
“I’ve seen so many kids who have all the talent in the world to beat me, and on paper they should crush me, and they never beat me. It’s because I put in the miles. I’ve been in the trenches for too long.”
Advertisement
Will that lead to one more medal, this time with his family in attendance? Realistically, it won’t be easy. Baumgartner has not been a regular on the podium at World Cup events in recent years; his best recent result came in Türkiye about a year ago, when he finished third.
But Baumgartner continues to push the expiration date of his career further and further. He believes that if his 44-year-old body is ready for one last big race, the Olympics will take it out of him.
“I’m a competitor and I love to push myself,” he said. “I love setting goals that people think are unattainable and going out there and proving them wrong. And by doing this and setting these goals and continuing to surpass them, it just reignites the fire.”