Olympic snowboard champion Nick Baumgartner on resilience: 'Failure is always part of the process'
USA's Olympic gold medallist shares his story of how failure, challenges and a quote from Muhammad Ali helped him to never give up on his hope to be an Olympic champion.
Snowboard
Nick Baumgartner is a dreamer but in the best kind of way.
The Olympic snowboard champion dreamed about winning Beijing 2022 gold well before he achieved it.
And he finally achieved the long-awaited goal at his fourth Olympic Games, at 40 years old, when he secured the title in the mixed team cross event along with Lindsey Jacobellis.
Despite a long and challenging journey, Baumgartner has had a voice in his mind that's helped him keep his dream alive.
Speaking to Olympics.com he explained, "Muhammad Ali said, if your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough. And that's a big thing for me. I've always shot as high as I possibly could because that's what we're here to do."
There are several aspects which make his story and victory with Jacobellis special.
The Michigan native only just missed the podium at PyeongChang 2018, finishing fourth.
"Pyeongchang was a tough one for me because as most people would think, fourth in the world is amazing, but as an athlete, fourth is no man's land, the wooden spoon, they call it," Baumgartner says. "I was left unsatisfied and I wanted more and I think that pushed me to work harder than I had ever worked throughout my career. And I think that had a lot to do with my success in Beijing."
Disappointment can bring out different things in people. For Baumgartner, it brought out a deeper hunger.
"I think failure's always part of the process in anything that you do and failure's got a funny way of directing you to where you're supposed to be.
"Without the failure and those bad days, the good days aren't as good. So I think they're needed. They're needed to teach you character about yourself and then learn about what you're made out of. But also it just makes it so much better.
"In Beijing, I had my individual race and I fell short of my goal once again, and I was devastated and people got to see that. I did an interview and it's one I'm very proud of because people got to see the emotion of what happens when you put that much work into something and you fall short of that goal, and then two days later to be able to come back and then to the biggest glory of Olympic gold. It's an amazing thing. But it's not as amazing without those bad days and without those struggles."
Nick Baumgartner on making no excuses
Fortunately, the heartache of PyeongChang sparked a fierce fire inside Baumgartner to come back stronger.
And it was more than worth the effort.
There was much said of his Team USA selection for the 2020 Olympic Winter Games as he was USA's oldest-ever male Olympic snowboarder in Beijing. At 40 years old he was five years older than three-time Olympic halfpipe champion Shaun White. But his age in Beijing was simply that.
"When I was going to make the Olympics at 40 and I was trying, people started to question me like, are you sure? Don't you think it's time to grow up? And I didn't let that beat me down. I'd use that as fire to prove to them what is possible."
Baumgartner, at his fourth Olympics, became the oldest snowboarder to win an Olympic medal and the oldest American Olympic champion at a Winter Games since 1948 when Frank Tyler won gold in the four-man bobsled at 43.
"It's funny a lot of people ask me, does it drive you nuts all they talk about is your age. I say absolutely not. It's the one thing that it's coming for all of us. We can't run from getting older. And for me, it just means more because it shows people what is possible, again, by not giving up.
"I'm 40 years old. Everybody counted me out. And to go there and not only do well but to win Olympic gold at 40 years old, it's a pretty awesome feeling.
"I just hope that people can take my story and learn from that and go out there and get what they want out of life. It doesn't matter where you come from. I come from a 400 foot ski hill in a very small community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And I'm 40 years old.
"It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter how old you are. If you want something in life, it's your duty and your job to go out there, work for it, do not believe the excuses and go get what you want.- Nick Baumgartner."
Nick Baumgartner: Sacrifice pays off
On top of all the odds against him, Baumgartner was living in a van in the summer while training in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Wanting to give himself the best shot at success, he made a huge sacrifice by putting his construction job on hold in order to bet on himself for the Games. Despite making most of his money in the summer, he sacrificed earning a living to give Beijing all he had.
"The thing that I'm the most proud about in my career is just the ups and downs on those bad days it would have been easy to quit, but I didn't and I kept dreaming and I kept chasing that dream.
"To think that the prime age for my sport to be successful is 28 to 32. My first Olympics, I was 28. My second Olympics, I was 32. Those are my worst finishes in all my Olympics. And then because I didn't quit, I got to go on."
"By going there and winning a medal at 40 and not only a medal, but a gold medal, I think that shows people what's possible when you don't give up on yourself and you keep working and you keep pushing and you don't lose that childhood dream. And it's been an amazing ride."
Looking back on 2022 and his success in China, Baumgartner beams with pride recapping how his Olympic glory changed the path of his year.
"It completely changed my life," he says. "My life has been wild since Beijing. It's been a complete whirlwind.
"I've been to 53 appearances since February and most of them being schools. So I've been able to take the achievements that me and Lindsey did in Beijing and share that with the youth and try to inspire more stories like mine to come out of my small community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and that's an honour for me. It's something that's very cool and I can't even explain in words how cool it is to be able to be that person to help push the next generation."
Nick Baumgartner: Mission Milano Cortina 2026
The question now is what does the future have in store for the American?
"I'm going to do this as long as my body allows me to.
"I don't want to live with the regret of what if, what if I would have kept doing it, what could I have done? Everyone knows the expiration date as an elite athlete is coming at some point. But until that comes, I'm going to keep pushing wide open, full throttle, and I'm going to try to do it as long as I can and as long as I'm having fun and I'm competitive, which I think to go hand in hand.
"I'm going to do this as long as possible."
Baumgartner will be 44 at Milano Cortina 2026.