Winter Olympics 2026: Nick Baumgartner out to prove age is just a number

Nick Baumgartner, in his own words, is no anomaly.

Like every other 44-year-old on the planet, he will wake up with strange aches and need a little more time to get the engines revved up than he required a decade ago. The gray hairs are coming in nonstop on the beard and with less frequency up top, an area often covered by a backwards hat. A college football player at Northern Michigan once upon a time, Baumgartner has had to trade power lifts for fast-twitch and flexibility exercises to reduce injury risk and ensure all his energy is channeled into the stuff that will matter when he steps on a snowboard.

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But motivation to endure every step of a painstaking process, day after day, just for one more shot at the Olympics? Even after his long-awaited gold medal in 2022, that’s the part Baumgartner still can’t get enough of.

“You’d think it would get old,” said Baumgartner, who will go to Milano 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 in my 20s before I even started snowboard cross. I’m making up for time lost at the front end.”

Four years ago in Beijing, Baumgartner was heartbroken and on the verge of tears after failing short of the semifinals in the men’s snowboard cross, an event where competitors race through a course of curves and jumps in an elimination format until there’s four competitors left for the final run. It was just one little mistake, Baumgartner said, but it was costly: At age 40 and still medal-less at his fourth Olympics, he could feel time running out.

But the mixed team snowboard cross event — new to the Olympics four years ago — was his salvation. Paired with Lindsey Jacobellis, whose own Olympic history had been dotted with disappointment, they were so elated to win a gold that it didn’t even matter that their friends and family were thousands of miles away because of the COVID rules Beijing put in place that made travel almost impossible.

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“To finally knock that off after years of falling short and falling short, nothing could have muted that celebration,” said Baumgartner. “Then when I went home, it got crazy.”

Despite sub-freezing temperatures, it seemed like the entire population of Iron River, Michigan, was there to celebrate Baumgartner with a parade, some of which he traversed in a car with his sons and some of which he walked with his dog on a leash, handing out high-fives to 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 unlikely career that has taken him from the snowy Michigan winters around Lake Superior to mountains all around the world.

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But Baumgartner wasn’t done chasing medals. And who knows, maybe Milan Cortina won’t be his last hurrah. The thought of competing in Salt Lake City in 2032 when he’ll be 52 has undoubtedly crossed his mind.

“I had my best career at 40,” he said. “You never know. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely we’re doing everything we can, and we’re using all technology and everything at our grasp to be able to be better at this.”

Age is a real thing with consequences 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 will drive 90 minutes from his home in Iron River to the gym where he trains in Marquette, Michigan, sleep in his van and get his workout in the next day and then drive back 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’m going to be in big trouble. But if I continue to keep moving and keep doing stuff and take care of my body and train, I think I’ll be fine.”

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The training is different now than it was at the start of his career. It’s all fast-twitch and explosive movements, designed to get him moving quickly out of the gate before gravity and experience take over. Everything is closely monitored by technology so that he can back off if the machines say he’s pushing so hard he’s at risk of injury.

In a sport where the prime age is generally late 20s, it’s what Baumgartner must do to remain relevant enough for his skill and knowledge to overcome declining physicality.

“This bus will go fast downhill, but I got to get it out of the garage fast enough,” he said. “As long as I can keep that speed and stay in the hunt, then anything’s possible.

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“I’ve seen so many kids that 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.”

Will that lift him to one more medal — this time with his family in attendance? Realistically, it won’t be easy. Baumgartner hasn’t been a regular on the podium at World Cup events the last few years, his best recent finish coming in Turkey about a year ago when he finished third.

But Baumgartner keeps pushing the expiration date on his career further and further into the future. He believes if his 44-year-old body is up for one last great run, the Olympics will bring it out of him.

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“I’m a competitor, and I love pushing myself,” he said. “I love setting goals that people think are unreachable and going out there and proving them wrong. And by doing this and setting these goals and keep knocking them off, it just relights the fire.”