“You know, we’re real people. We’re missing a few things,” Schultz said. “We’re still having some struggles throughout our journey trying to find the right fitting gear that allows us to live life.”
For some people, dentures make everyday tasks easier. But for the St. Cloud native, prosthetics helped him win a few Olympic medals.
In 2008, Schultz was competing in a snowcross race when he flew off his snowmobile and landed on his left leg, resulting in an above-knee amputation.
“Hearing those words ‘you’re going to become an amputee’ was extremely hard to bear,” he said.
But just seven months after his amputation, Schultz was back doing what he loved while winning a 10-time X Games medal. But Schultz said the prosthetic equipment he used was not suited to his competitive lifestyle and rigorous sport.
Schultz designed a mechanical knee, later starting his own company called BioDapt for other athletes who needed better prostheses and adaptive equipment.
Schultz burst onto the world stage in 2018 competing at the Paralympic Winter Games in South Korea. He won gold and silver for Team USA in addition to being the flag bearer for the opening ceremonies. He won medals in events he didn’t even know how to do before being amputated: snowboarding.
“I accomplished something that ten years ago was not on my radar,” he said.
He also recently returned from the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games with a silver medal around his neck, also in snowboarding.
Schultz said that once all people can think of amputees as disabled people who see nothing but a normal person, then we will be successful.
“I mean we’ve been successful in bringing awareness,” he said.
Schultz is also a new author on his new book “Driven to Ride.”
