Minnesota snowboarder Mike Schultz wins gold at Paralympics
A St. Cloud, Minn., resident took home gold Monday in the men's snowboard cross event of the Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Mike Schultz, who's known for creating cutting-edge prosthetics for snowboard athletes, snagged the event's top medal.
"What a day. It started out rough on my time trial and I went down and got shuffled back to fifth place and unfortunately I had to square up with my teammate Mark Mann pretty early on," Schultz said in a statement. "But I won, and won again, and won again and (got) a gold for Team USA. It's an incredible feeling."
He was a professional snocross racer before a horrific accident in a 2008 race cost him his left leg. He began snowboarding in 2009. He has since won gold medals in adaptive motocross at the X Games and adaptive snocross at the Winter X Games.
He was the first person to win a gold medal at both the X games and the Winter X Games in the same year in different sports in 2010.
Schultz also had the honor to be a flag bearer for Team USA during the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games.
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