0:00

Welcome back to Disability Talks,

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a podcast produced by Abilities in Motion,

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a Center for Independent Living located in

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Reading, Pennsylvania. I'm your host, Ed Granger

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, and today is part two of our podcast with

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the remarkable Mike Schultz, who shares

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more of his journey from professional snowmobile racer

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to amputee to gold medal winning Paralympian.

0:19

I think , I think you said in 2014

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in Sochi, in your book, there were no other,

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or there were no US team members that were actually using

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, uh, the equipment that you designed. I think

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you had some clients, but they were there for, you

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know , competing for other nations. And then that starts

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to change over the year . So as

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that's changing, you know, you are , what

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you're able to contribute is actually becoming part

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of someone else's dream. So,

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you know, as competitive as you are, you're contributing

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to them getting to pursue their dreams and goals. And

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how important is that to you?

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Uh , it's so big. Winning medals

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is, it feels good, but when

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you can really make

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a positive impact on somebody else

0:57

that goes, that goes deeper at

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a different level. And when I

1:01

go to the races, and , and so in 2018

1:04

in Pyeongchang, when I won a gold and silver,

1:07

I think there was 11 or

1:09

12 athletes or

1:12

so using equipment, maybe it was a little bit higher than

1:14

that. And then now here in Beijing

1:16

2022, there was 26

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athletes from 11 countries.

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And so basically everybody

1:23

I was personally racing against that

1:25

was an amputee, was wearing equipment I

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built in my shop and the majority of

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all the other classes as well. And

1:33

so it , it's, it's so much fun

1:35

to be able to walk around the staging area and

1:37

chat with all these athletes and give 'em high

1:39

fives. You know , I gotta wear two hats. I

1:41

have my, my monster Mike hat,

1:43

the competitor, and then I've got my BioDapt

1:46

business hat on. So, you know, it's always like,

1:48

I wanna try and separate those two

1:51

because , uh, you know, if it was,

1:53

if it was full monster Mike , I wouldn't , you know , like

1:55

, heck no, I'm not gonna help my competitors get

1:57

faster than I am. Um, so it's a fine

1:59

line then I, I continually balance, but

2:02

I , and I , I wouldn't give it up for anything. It's

2:04

, uh, it's very rewarding at multiple

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levels.

2:07

And , and you did actually , uh, point to your knee after

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you , uh, after your, your silver medal

2:11

. So was that a monster or was that marketing

2:14

Mike , at that point? Were you looking after your business

2:16

interest? What was your decision making along, along

2:18

those lines? You know, being the , the only

2:21

athlete there where your prosthesis

2:23

was visible?

2:24

Yeah, that , so that there's, there's a

2:26

couple reasons for that. You know, the, the

2:28

other guys that I was raised for , like Ty Turner,

2:30

he was on our equipment, you know, he just uses the

2:32

feet. Um, so that's obviously not

2:35

gonna be visible. Yeah. Who , uh, yeah

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, Ty Turner and , uh, Woo.

2:39

Yeah, he was ak, but you know, he didn't show up

2:41

. But for me personally, like I, I

2:44

like showing my equipment because it , it shows

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the viewers what they're, what

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they're watching, you know, if they can

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see that I have

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a prosthetic leg, you know, from my knee down,

2:55

it, it changes their, their thought processors

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or their perspective of what they're watching

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if they, you know, they see a guy who

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is fully covered, they like, don't

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know what his disability is. So when

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they watch me, they can see, yeah, I'm, I'm

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an above knee amputee, and wow, look at him, fly

3:11

over those jumps and those rollers and flying

3:13

down the course. So it just helps our

3:15

sport in my mind. Uh, it helps

3:18

the audience understand what they're

3:20

watching. And then of course, you

3:22

know, me being the designer and builder of this

3:24

equipment, I'm like, yeah, I wanna , I wanna show

3:27

it off. It's, it's cool stuff. <laugh>.

3:30

Absolutely. So, you know, we , you

3:32

sort of already, you know, mentioned

3:34

that , uh, Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics,

3:36

but you know, you, you, you decided you're gonna

3:38

pursue this dream, but then you hit 2015, you

3:41

hit a little bit of a bump in the road. So,

3:43

you know, I , I think you wrote that you were kind

3:45

of had to make a decision, am I really committed to

3:47

going for the higher Olympic dream or,

3:49

or not. So can you talk a little bit about kind

3:52

of how that went and the setback and

3:54

how you once again, you know, got your dreams

3:56

back on track?

3:57

Yeah. 2015, I

4:00

was , uh, racing border cross at

4:02

the Winter X Games, and I

4:05

ended up coming up short on

4:07

a big 50 some foot double.

4:10

And I, I landed on the deck of

4:12

the landing and shattered my heel,

4:14

my calcaneus into a , a 15

4:17

pieces or so. And , um, I

4:19

had surgery on it and they tried to put it back

4:22

together. I had the best foot surgeon in the world in

4:24

my mind, trying to put me back together.

4:26

And he's like, it's gonna be a long road, but

4:28

we're gonna do everything we can to keep you going. And,

4:30

and I was in so much pain from

4:33

that injury. I, I, every step

4:35

I took for the , basically the entire

4:37

year after that, it , it was painful.

4:40

And so it took the fun right out of it. I

4:42

was barely able to snowboard. I could get

4:44

up on it a little bit. I continued with the race team,

4:47

but I was not sure if , if it

4:49

was worth the effort cuz it was so

4:51

uncomfortable. I ended up getting another

4:53

surgery the following spring, which, which

4:55

helped out the range of motion I had,

4:58

and it relieved a lot of the pain . And so then

5:00

I decided, well, I could still do it.

5:02

So this is, you know, the injury was 15

5:04

and then, so we're going into the 16, 17

5:06

year and like, I don't know, this

5:09

is, you know, there , there's no money to be made

5:11

in Paralympic snowboarding, not at

5:13

the beginning anyways. And it's

5:15

like an enormous amount of time and effort time

5:18

away from my family. I'm like, I just, I

5:20

didn't know if it was worth it, but

5:22

man, I am glad that , uh, Sarah and

5:24

I decided, you know, going into the 17,

5:27

18 season that, yep , we're, we're

5:29

on board . We gotta make the most of it. I

5:31

had an amazing season that year

5:33

going into the Pyeongchang games. I went undefeated

5:36

in border cross and then , uh, was one

5:38

of the top in , in banks slalom. And I

5:40

, I won the, the two

5:42

overall globes for border cross

5:44

and Bank slalom. So going into Pyeongchang

5:46

was , uh, I had a lot of momentum and I

5:49

was smiling and it was an incredible experience.

5:51

I , um, at that time it was head-to-head

5:53

racing for our class. It was only

5:55

two at a time. I faced off against Netherlands,

5:58

Chris Voss . And , uh, yeah,

6:00

he made a small mistake in the, the, the

6:03

first stretch. And I was able to take the lead and

6:05

, uh, came home with a gold. And I, I tell

6:07

you what, crossing that finish line was, wow,

6:10

that was a powerful moment. It, it

6:12

didn't have as much to do with the

6:15

sport of snowboarding as it did about

6:17

the entire big picture and the

6:19

journey that I went through to get to

6:21

that moment. And then being able to

6:24

perform my best when

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the pressure of the world was on in that moment. And

6:28

yeah, it was, it was really incredible.

6:31

And , and you obviously to that point, you've been part of

6:33

a lot of kind of big experience. You've

6:36

been a professional athlete in motor sports , you'd

6:38

been to Winter X Games, you've been to Summer X

6:40

Games. So at that point you've

6:42

had all these big experience. How, how did, how was the

6:44

Paralympics just different from those other experience?

6:46

Or was it?

6:47

Uh , it was, it was incredibly

6:49

different. You know, the, the mindset, the

6:51

competitive mindset was very similar. You

6:54

know, I'm there to perform a specific

6:56

task, you know, snowboarding at

6:59

my best, so I have my routine, but

7:01

the scope of it, you know, representing

7:03

the red, white and blue, Team USA in

7:06

front of the world, that was so much bigger

7:08

than than anything else. Uh

7:10

, I mean, the X Games are huge, don't

7:13

get me wrong. That is a huge

7:15

event. But when you bring the entire

7:17

world together to compete against each

7:19

other, there's so much more weight involved

7:21

with it. And just being at the

7:23

venue, at the games, the money

7:25

and the effort spent by

7:28

everybody to get there. And we only got

7:30

a shot at it once in four years.

7:32

So that buildup puts it in an

7:34

incredible amount of, of weight to it. You

7:36

know , you're training for one , one

7:39

specific event, one outta four

7:41

years. And so <laugh> it's like, you

7:44

got one shot, you gotta make it happen, or it's

7:46

a long wait for the next one.

7:48

Well, and it's especially, you know, I , for a

7:50

lot of Olympic athletes who are in sports that aren't

7:52

on TV every day , that's the

7:54

one time everybody else is watching and that's what

7:56

they're gonna remember. They're not gonna remember the

7:58

World Cup victories and some of these other things. Everybody's

8:01

focused on the Olympics. So it is one of

8:03

those things where, you know, you know, your country's watching

8:05

you, whereas they may not be at other times,

8:07

you know, and , and sort of connected to that, when

8:10

did you find out that you were in consideration

8:12

for being the Team USA flag

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bearer at those games?

8:16

<laugh> ? Yeah, that was, that was , uh,

8:18

another , uh, surprise, an

8:21

unbelievable experience. So

8:24

yeah, they , uh, basically the, the

8:26

nations choose their, their flag bearers

8:28

for opening ceremony, you know, like the

8:30

week ahead of time. Uh , I think it was about a

8:32

week before. And so each one of

8:34

the sports from the teams chooses

8:37

one person to represent 'em, and then they vote,

8:39

then the entire group votes on who they

8:42

think best fits it. And <laugh>

8:44

, there's a funny story about it. So

8:46

I, you know, I was one of the nominees, I

8:48

knew that for, you know, a few days. And

8:50

so I was supposed to prepare, you know, kind

8:52

of a , a resume for it, why, why I

8:54

should be, be chosen as, you know, the flag

8:57

bearer . And so I was supposed to discuss this with my

8:59

teammate , who's our team representative, Mike Shaa

9:02

. And , uh, you know, I got, I got tied

9:04

up doing all this. I totally forgot about it. And

9:06

I knew he was having a meeting and then all of a

9:08

sudden my teammate Keith Gable comes

9:10

in and uh, he's like, yeah, I

9:12

was just at the, the nation's meeting for the

9:14

flag bearers . And , um, well, I don't think

9:16

it went well cuz , you know, I

9:19

was discussing him about me being a nominee

9:21

and , and then I'm like, oh crap, I

9:23

was supposed to get all this information to Mike.

9:26

And , uh, so I just felt deflated.

9:28

I felt like I totally dropped the ball.

9:31

And then he is like, well, Mike's

9:33

over in the room, across the, across the

9:35

hall, let's go talk to 'em , see how it went. So I

9:37

went in there, opened the door up, and our entire

9:39

snowboard team was in there and

9:42

they all announced that I was, I

9:44

was , uh, named flag bearer

9:46

for Team USA and <laugh> . My

9:48

jaw just fell to the floor and I,

9:51

I just felt so grateful. And

9:53

yeah, it was, because it's

9:55

such a big deal to represent your

9:57

team. It it, it shows that

10:00

they look at you as, as a leader,

10:02

as someone they want to represent

10:04

the rest of the team. And

10:06

so, I mean, it has an enormous weight behind

10:09

it. And, you know, for me, I'm

10:11

very patriotic. I look at our, our red,

10:13

white and blue and I love what it stands for. You

10:15

know, so many times I look at the flag and I think

10:17

about all the veterans that I've helped

10:20

a along the way with my company BioDapt

10:23

and the troop tours that I went on and visiting

10:25

our troops around the world at different military

10:27

bases. And, you know, that's, that's what I think

10:29

about when I, when I look at the flag. And

10:31

to be able to carry it through in front of

10:33

the world was , uh, that was a very powerful

10:36

thing to be able to be part of.

10:37

So you mentioned that, you know, one of the, the

10:40

cool things about that games was you were able to go into that

10:42

games feeling like you're kind of on top of your

10:44

game and, and then compete your best, you know, under

10:46

that, under that kind of pressure. So take us

10:48

through that snowboard cross event

10:51

and, and kind of how that went. Is it one of those things where

10:53

you kind of remember every tiny detail or is it kind

10:55

of a blur when when you look back?

10:58

It was, it was a bit of a blur. I mean, it was

11:00

such cutthroat competition cause

11:02

it was bracket racing and I had

11:04

to line up against all my teammates

11:07

and end up winning and knocking

11:09

him out. Basically. My teammate

11:11

Noah, he was probably my biggest threat.

11:14

Um, I ended up passing him and bumped him down

11:16

into the small final and then the

11:18

gold medal run with me and Voss was , uh,

11:21

exciting, but, you know, it wasn't

11:23

a close race cause he made a

11:25

mistake going down the first stretch. So basically

11:28

I just had to stay up <laugh> and make

11:30

it to the finish line. And, and man,

11:32

that was the most difficult run I've ever had to make down

11:34

the course. And I was, you know, I, I had , uh,

11:36

a really big lead after he fell and

11:39

<laugh>, I was like, just make it down.

11:41

Don't miss any gates. Don't crash. Just

11:43

make it across the line. Yeah. And

11:46

you know, it , it was kind of a blur, but there's

11:48

a couple things that stand out. We had , uh,

11:50

you know, we were about three quarters of the way through

11:52

the qualifying and there was

11:54

a , a start gate malfunction that basically

11:57

paused our entire event for like two

12:00

hours. And it's like, oh man.

12:02

And me being the Mr. Fixit

12:04

so to speak, I'm, I'm watching him , you

12:06

know , work on this gate and I'm like , I just let me gimme

12:08

some tools. I can fix this. Let's keep this, let's

12:10

keep this race going. But they ended up,

12:13

you know, changing the way they used the start, they used

12:15

bungee cord start, which was a little janky,

12:17

but you know, it got the job done. And

12:19

I preferred doing that over like canceling

12:22

the race or whatever they were talking about doing. Cuz

12:24

it was like, they were actually talking about taking

12:26

qualifying times as our finish.

12:28

And that would've been horrible for me because I,

12:31

I made a mistake in my qualifying

12:33

run. But anyways, it all worked out. There

12:35

was, you know, there was lots of drama throughout the

12:37

day with the start gate malfunction and, you

12:39

know, just the head-to-head competition. But , uh,

12:42

overall, you know, looking back

12:44

at 2018, it was like, it

12:46

couldn't have went any better. I took Silver

12:48

in Banks Slalom. Uh,

12:51

it took silver behind my teammate Noah,

12:53

who was wearing my moto knee, which

12:55

was a really special moment for me and

12:57

my company. You know, him being able

12:59

to be on top with me standing

13:01

next to him was , uh, it was great. I,

13:04

you know, I could have easily been

13:06

content and rode away into the sunset

13:09

and hung up my race board , you

13:11

know, cause at that time I was 36 years

13:13

old. Like , yeah, I, you know, I've

13:15

competed for 20 years already, or nearly

13:17

20 years. I'm , this would be a

13:19

great way to, to put an ending to my

13:22

competitive career.

13:23

So you , uh, I believe 2018 was when

13:25

you won the ESPY award. When did

13:27

you find out about that? How did that whole process come

13:29

about?

13:30

Yeah, I got, I got an email in say

13:32

it was June, you know , it was about a month before the

13:35

sbs . I , I was , I'm definitely aware of the sbs.

13:37

I watched 'em occasionally. And so

13:40

yeah, I got an email from my publicist

13:43

and I found out about a month ahead of time

13:45

that I was a nominee. And they're like,

13:47

how'd you like to come join us down at the ESPYs in

13:50

in LA? I'm like, yeah, yeah,

13:52

absolutely. So my wife and

13:54

I, we ended up going there and what

13:56

a great experience. I mean, they had the red

13:58

carpet and all the best of the

14:00

best athletes from the

14:03

US. Uh, I mean, we're talking all

14:05

sports, we're talking big hitters and you

14:07

know, baseball and football and basketball and

14:09

you know, all the mainstream sports and so

14:12

many other famous people that

14:15

, uh, and their entourages that come

14:17

there and, you know, they get all dolled up and, you

14:19

know, they're fine suits. And it was

14:21

just a , a really neat thing to be part of, aside

14:24

from the fact that that I, I ended

14:26

up winning. But you know, just being, to be

14:28

there and experience it with that level

14:30

of athletes and people was

14:33

, uh, that was a wow moment

14:35

<laugh>.

14:36

So that that could have been your, your career capper

14:38

right there. If you , if you let it, you could have just announced

14:40

your retirement and taken your ESPY and <laugh>

14:43

gone off into the sunset. And that's of course not

14:45

what happened. So talk about the decision

14:47

to come back in 2022 and how that came

14:49

about.

14:50

I, you know, the, that

14:52

summer I was like, this, this has

14:54

been so great. I don't want

14:57

to diminish what I just did by

14:59

hanging out and continuing and,

15:01

and not have the performance, you

15:03

know, ending on a high note is worth a lot,

15:05

but then I'm a competitor. Like I've

15:08

got, I've got a few boxes that I have

15:10

to check in order to pursue, you

15:12

know, whatever I'm looking at, whether it's business or

15:15

or sport competition. It's

15:17

like, I've gotta be having fun. I've

15:19

gotta be competitive and it's gotta

15:21

be financially worthwhile. And

15:24

I am like, it's still checking these boxes.

15:26

I'm still competitive, you know, at

15:28

this time I'm, I've got some

15:30

momentum so I might as well take advantage of

15:32

it as far as the the sponsorship

15:34

side and you know, the financial side of it,

15:37

you know, after I did well at the games. And

15:39

so I'm like, let's just keep riding it. And

15:42

I went full bore for the next four years

15:44

and uh, you know, I took a little bit of time off

15:46

to get some things sorted after, you

15:48

know, the crazy year of travel going into

15:51

the games. But the longer I, I'm

15:53

an athlete, the more I appreciate

15:56

what I'm able to do and if

15:58

I'm still enjoying myself. It's such an

16:00

amazing lifestyle to, to continue

16:02

with and I'm like, let's, let's do it.

16:04

And <laugh>, I'm so thankful once

16:06

again that I did it over the next four years.

16:09

The level of competitiveness and

16:11

all the athletes just grew exponentially.

16:14

We ended up racing four wide

16:16

instead of head to head like we did in 2018.

16:19

And there was a few more athletes

16:21

in all the classes and

16:23

you know, everybody just raised the bar so

16:26

much. So it was more difficult to

16:28

be consistent and competitive.

16:30

So yeah, we get to Beijing and

16:33

it was like, I know I'm competitive,

16:35

but it's like instead of, you

16:37

know, the differences being a half a second or

16:39

a second, like the last games, like

16:42

we're we're competing for tenths

16:44

or hundredths of seconds in every

16:46

race. So it's so close and exciting.

16:49

And Beijing, you know, getting there and

16:52

seeing the competition venues, they were incredible.

16:54

They were fun to ride and it

16:56

was game on. It was , uh, <laugh> . Yeah,

16:58

it was an incredible experience.

17:00

So , uh, I think at your first games in

17:02

2018, I think your daughter would've

17:04

been maybe five or six. So

17:07

this time she was a little bit older. How much did her being

17:09

able to see you compete in the Paralympics with,

17:11

you know, maybe a little bit better chance

17:13

of actually having memories of that , uh, you

17:16

know, how much was that a part of your

17:18

decision or your enjoyment of that experience?

17:21

Well that was one of the motivators for

17:23

me to continue was because , yeah, she

17:25

was four years old in 2018,

17:27

so she's eight this year. And,

17:30

you know, I wanted her to be able to

17:32

come to China and, you

17:34

know, be with Sarah and cheer me on and

17:36

get to experience it in person , cuz

17:38

yeah, she would definitely remember it. And

17:40

her being a little gymnast right now, she,

17:43

you know, she's such a big fan of all the

17:45

Team USA gymnasts and

17:47

so she has that personal connection in

17:49

her own eyes beyond me.

17:51

And so I, I was looking so forward

17:54

to having them there with me. Uh,

17:56

but obviously with, with Covid restrictions,

17:59

you know, nobody was able to to be

18:01

a , a spectator there other than the Chinese

18:03

people. So that was a major bummer.

18:05

But another , nevertheless, like she got

18:08

to experience some really cool things back here

18:10

with watch parties here at the house

18:12

with friends and family. And then they

18:14

ended up going to Utah for the Team

18:16

USA watch party where a

18:18

bunch of the other athletes families were hanging out

18:20

and watching. So they definitely got to

18:22

experience it and she's, she's a

18:24

little Team USA super fan and

18:27

I think she will be for life after

18:29

growing up, you know, around this.

18:31

So that's one of the very proud

18:33

things that I get to share with her , um,

18:36

that she , you know, will, will , uh, impact

18:38

her for the rest of her life.

18:39

That's amazing. That's, that's

18:41

great that she's kind of inherited some of that same,

18:44

you know, drive and, and competitive nature

18:46

and maybe, you know, balanced out with a

18:48

little bit of mom's more cautious approach

18:50

to things as a center for independent

18:52

living, what Abilities in Motion. One of the

18:54

things we do is help people find what their dream

18:56

is and what their vision is for themselves. And

18:59

then set goals, find a plan

19:01

to make those goals a reality and, and follow that

19:03

plan and find the support to do it. So I , I

19:05

think maybe our listeners would be interested in hearing a little bit

19:07

about kind of what is your process for

19:09

doing that? You've done that over and over and over again where

19:11

you've had a dream, an idea, a glimmer

19:13

spark, and you've managed to turn that into

19:16

the reality in an , in an amazing competitive

19:18

career and amazing experiences. So

19:20

can you share a little bit about what your process is?

19:22

Do you, are you one of those people who sits down and writes your

19:24

goals down and puts 'em on the wall, you know, kind of what is

19:26

your process?

19:28

Yeah, it's definitely process. Um,

19:30

<laugh> it is much more now

19:32

than it was in my previous professional

19:35

career. You know, I look at it, I,

19:37

I try and simplify things as

19:39

simple as I can from the beginning. You

19:42

know, I , I establish what my

19:44

goal is, which isn't always crystal clear,

19:46

you know, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

19:48

You know , you really have to figure out

19:50

exactly what you wanna accomplish

19:53

short-term and long-term. And

19:55

then I figure out the steps required

19:57

in order to achieve that. For example,

20:00

you know, my goal was Summer X Game

20:02

super cost . Well, what did I have to do? I had

20:04

to get my equipment set

20:06

up right so I could, you know, actually ride

20:09

the bike and figure out the

20:11

steps of qualifying and

20:14

practice and training. You know, like just you kind

20:16

of , you start at your goal and then you, you

20:18

work backward from there and the steps. And

20:20

then, you know, the third step is creating

20:23

a plan of action to accomplish

20:25

those steps needed. And then the fourth

20:27

piece is just to do it, put

20:29

the work in and be relentless

20:32

with , uh, you know, your pursuit

20:35

of that goal and, and know

20:37

that no, it , it's not always gonna

20:39

work out perfectly. And the

20:41

thing is, is when you fail, there's,

20:44

there's lots to be learned from it from that,

20:46

those failures or those, those hiccups

20:48

or those , uh, moments that send

20:51

you backward again, it's like you can't

20:53

get upset with it. You have to process it and figure

20:55

out what you did wrong or what you needed to

20:57

do different or in addition to, and

20:59

then start over. And so once

21:01

you go through that process a few times,

21:04

you start to get the hang of it and you, it

21:06

, it starts to change your perspective in

21:08

how you approach a challenge

21:11

in front of you . And you know,

21:13

when you put that amount of work and

21:15

effort into it trying to achieve something, and then

21:17

you finally achieve it, that's a

21:19

moment you'll never forget. And I tell

21:21

you what, the harder you work for something, the

21:23

more impressive it is and the better

21:26

the feeling when you finally get there.

21:28

Yeah. I , I feel like sometimes the, the

21:30

things that come with the problems that you have to overcome,

21:32

when you are able to overcome them, it

21:34

feels even better. And sometimes it's hard

21:36

to appreciate those problems when they, when they crop

21:38

up until you've done it a few times and you're like, okay, I,

21:40

I know what's going on here. I've been down this road before.

21:43

Yeah, absolutely. And, and it's the

21:45

, I probably the biggest thing out of,

21:47

you know, that whole process is paying

21:49

attention to the details, whether

21:51

they're positive or negative,

21:54

pay attention to 'em and just learn

21:56

what you can from 'em. And , um, and

21:58

there it is . That's, that's the <laugh> , that's the

22:00

secret sauce <laugh>.

22:02

So if people wanna learn more about the secret sauce,

22:04

they can open the pages of your, of your

22:07

book, which came out right before

22:09

the Olympics. So you did one of those things where

22:11

you left some chapters out that you were able

22:13

to experience and live and add to the book for

22:15

later. So we'll have to wait for like the sequel or

22:18

the second volume. But the book is Driven

22:20

to Ride, the full title is Driven to Ride: The

22:22

True Story of an Elite Athlete Who Rebuilt His

22:24

Leg, His Life and His Career. So that came

22:26

out, you know, right before the Beijing , Beijing

22:29

Olympics. And so how was it, you know, having all

22:31

that going on as you're trying to prepare for,

22:33

to compete at a top level in the Olympic Games?

22:36

Oh, that was a whirlwind. Lemme

22:38

tell you , <laugh>, there was so many things

22:40

happening in that moment, and it's , uh, I

22:43

had a , a window of launching

22:45

the book with my publishing company. I knew I wanted

22:48

to do it sometime between the

22:51

Olympics and Paralympics. And

22:53

, uh, it ended up, you know, being that we had

22:56

to do it in late January, right in

22:58

my prime competitive timeframe.

23:01

And so I was actually in , uh, what

23:03

was it, Norway, when the book launched. And , uh,

23:05

it was pretty fun. I got to do a morning show

23:08

to announce it and share

23:10

it with the , you know, on national tv.

23:12

So that was , uh, that was a lot of fun. But

23:15

it , yeah, it , I mean since then it's been

23:17

such a whirlwind with the games and,

23:19

you know, post games , different media ops

23:21

and sponsor obligations and the

23:24

book side of things. So it's just , uh,

23:26

you know, we didn't hit it as hard as I

23:28

, I would've liked to as

23:30

far as marketing the book and getting it out to

23:32

people. But, you know, it's , uh, not

23:34

enough time in the day, but we're gonna , we we're

23:37

continually trying to push it out and , uh,

23:39

you know, getting some great

23:41

feedback from everybody who's been reading it and,

23:43

you know, I'm obviously biased, but

23:45

, uh, you know, it's, it's a , it's an adventure. It's

23:48

a true page turner, and it

23:50

was , uh, you know, one of the highlights of

23:52

of mine to be able to accomplish that book

23:54

and share my story with everybody. So I,

23:57

I really appreciate you guys checking

23:59

it out. You can go to Amazon and get it

24:01

off there, or Barnes and Noble Target, and

24:03

then there's, there's a few bookstores

24:05

scattered around the country that has it. But , uh,

24:07

online's your best bet.

24:09

I I , I'd love to tell you that I'm an unbiased

24:11

, uh, reviewer who will tell you it , it's a terrific

24:13

read and I highly recommend it. And I did

24:15

read it. I'm not quite done with it yet, but

24:18

I'm most of the way through and looking forward to reading

24:20

the rest and also looking forward to reading the

24:22

next chapters that are coming ahead. So do

24:25

you have any idea yet what those, what those additional chapters

24:27

that eventually you're gonna have to write and add to the

24:29

book might be, and, and how does kind of

24:31

, um, monster Mike the competitor figure

24:33

into that?

24:34

Well, the door has been left open once

24:36

again, I just , uh, signed with

24:39

the US Para Snowboard team for

24:41

another season. So , um, not hanging

24:43

up the, the race boots yet

24:46

beyond this year, you know, who knows.

24:48

But , uh, you know, I , I've , I've taken this

24:50

summer some extra time to , to myself

24:52

and with my family this summer to

24:54

, uh, you know, catch up on a lot of

24:57

lot of things like that, you know , um,

24:59

at home here with the horses. And we're

25:01

gonna continue to push with BioDapt. We've got

25:03

a lot of stuff on the drawing board for the

25:05

future components and, and projects

25:08

and , uh, yeah, we'll, we'll

25:10

see. I'll definitely be at , on the World Cup

25:12

tour at some level this year

25:14

with Team USA on my snowboard. So

25:17

, um, yeah, if you wanna tag along, check

25:19

out my , uh, social media sites monster,

25:22

Mike Schultz on Instagram and Facebook, and you can keep

25:24

up on the, you know, where I'm at

25:26

in the world.

25:28

Please check out Mike's story and,

25:30

and have a look at his book. It's, it's fantastic.

25:33

Mike Schultz, is there anything else

25:35

you'd like people to know before we wrap

25:37

this up?

25:37

Yeah, I , I just appreciate the opportunity

25:40

to get here and chat with you guys and hopefully,

25:42

you know , uh, shared some insight on

25:44

some, some storyline stuff and motivation

25:47

and yeah, it's , uh, just wishing

25:49

you all the best and be go getters out there.

25:51

Challenge yourself to something new and

25:53

, uh, if you enjoy doing it, it's worth doing.

25:56

So , um, yeah, thanks again, Ed and Abilities

25:59

in Motion appreciate what you guys are

26:01

doing and, and helping other people with

26:03

disabilities to, to get out and about and

26:05

experience more and better things.

26:07

And yeah, it's an awesome program that

26:09

you guys have and I appreciate being part of it today.

26:11

Thanks, Mike. I, I feel like we're

26:13

the, the fortunate ones to get to talk to you and, and share

26:15

your story with our listeners, so wish you

26:18

the, the best at with whatever the next thing

26:20

is and look forward to, to hearing or

26:22

reading about it down the road.

26:23

Alright. Thanks a lot guys. Have a good

26:25

day.

26:25

Take care.

26:49

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of

26:51

Disability Talks. Want to be

26:53

a part of the ongoing conversation? Visit our

26:55

website at abilitiesinmotion.org

26:57

or connect with us on social media.