To be on the world stage carrying our flag and representing the U.S. Paralympic Team is a huge honor.
— Mike Schultz
Once I started feeling better and healthier and learned to walk on my first prosthetic leg, I realised I'm not going to be satisfied with just walking around.
For the most part, if you're willing to work hard enough, you can recover from most injuries. Having that mentality really helps you keep moving forward.
I've had several broken bones and sprains throughout my career, but the one that really changed things was when I wrecked in 2008 during a Pro Snocross competition. I was thrown from my machine and landed on my left leg and caused a 180 degree hyperextension of my knee joint.
To be able to wear your country's colors and compete in the Paralympics for the snowboard team... it's pretty powerful.
It's kind of crazy how one thing can lead to another if you keep your eyes open to it.
Being an athlete, my job was to physically perform.
I was in the garage fixin' things, and I'm like, what better project than building your own leg?
I'm a huge patriot, and what holds a lot of value for me is to be part of Team U.S.A.
I remember my dad telling me that if I wanted to start racing motocross, I had to get a job and pay for it myself. So I did. As soon as I was able to drive myself to work, I got into racing motocross at age 15.
Never did I ever think I would be competing on a snowboard out here in X Games.
Snowboarding and skiing are big adaptive sports, so that's kind of a market that I wanted to make our equipment used for.
I didn't even think about snowboarding until after my accident.
The crazy part, with all of the surgeries I had, I retained water from the IV fluids, and I gained 60 pounds. I was 247 pounds at my maximum. I couldn't even touch my face because my joints were swollen. I was so big, it was ridiculous - just insane.
Not a day goes by when I don't wish I had both legs.
I take a ton of pride in what our flag and our anthem stands for.
Fox and I go way back... I got to know the Fox folks pretty well as the result of spending time at races with them over the years.
To me, there's two symbols for Team U.S.A.: the national anthem and the American flag.
For my equipment, we're not about running. We're about wheels, action sports, and that type of thing. So we want range of motion and shock absorption. The foot itself has 28 degrees of ankle motion as you press into it or you put weight into it. A typical running or walking foot has kind of around 10 to 12, at max, flex at the toe.
It is definitely easier to deal with injuries on the mental side after you've had a few of them, since you are aware of the recovery process.
I bought my first dirt bike when I was 12, and I started racing motocross when I was 15 and started getting pretty successful. Then I started racing snowmobiles at 17 and decided I wanted to focus on that and see if I can make a career at it.
You know you've made it to the big time when you're on a cereal box.
Snowboarding has taken me so many different places.
I love being outdoors and trekking around.
A lot of the jobs I had revolved around metal fabrication and creating and building and maintaining equipment.
After snowboarding a fair bit in 2011 and 2012 to test equipment, I got pretty good at it, and some friends at Adaptive Action Sports talked me into competing at the exhibition event at the Winter X Games in the adaptive boardercross. I was able to step up my game pretty quick and compete. I took last place, but knew I could improve.
The thing that really stands out is that my parents taught me right from the start, if you want something in life, you need to work for it.
It's kind of mind-blowing what some of us adaptive athletes can accomplish as far as physical sports.
I had a wreck during a race in Michigan, which led to the hyperextension of my left leg and subsequent amputation.
I was always out wiping around on the farm with three-wheelers and four-wheelers. I loved the speed and the adrenaline rush that followed.
The Moto Knee shows people what's possible. It's about guys getting back in action in a sport they love.
For riding a snowmobile, you need to have your knee bent. It needs to absorb the impact of riding over bumps, to allow yourself to stand up or sit down, balance side to side.
I'm a huge fan of Fox, and I'm honored to be officially joining the FOX team with them as my title sponsor.
Having already used a Fox shock in my Moto Knee, the prosthetic leg I developed, I knew that I would take advantage of Fox's superior suspension dynamics in the Versa Foot as well.
Building prosthetics that allow people to get back to the fun activities in life is as rewarding a job as I can imagine. It's just as fulfilling for me as winning at the racetrack.
When you walk, you need the leg to swing back and forth underneath you. It needs to flex at a certain point, then extend as you follow through your gait. Now, that function doesn't really help at all while I'm standing on my dirt bike or snowmobile.
I ended up winning a silver medal at the Summer X Games Adaptive Supercross seven months after my injury - on a leg that I built.
I shattered the heel in my good leg, and it was an extremely bad injury. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to snowboard again.
I'm helping people do things they haven't done since they had two good legs, and that's worth it right there.
When I originally started looking at different prosthetic components, most of them were just set up for walking.
I loved to go hunting out in the woods and hiking, and that's just not easy anymore. For me, to walk up and down hills in the rough terrain, it just doesn't work very well. It can, but it's three times as hard as it used to be.
I'm very fortunate that I get to make people smile by creating.
I am the owner of my prosthetic manufacturing business, BioDapt, which manufactures lower-limb prosthetics for sports.
I know what it takes to make myself perform.
I'm out of my comfort zone every time I'm on the race course.
I'm from Minnesota and have always lived there. And my competitive career actually started in the late '90s racing motocross, which then turned into racing snowmobiles professionally. I turned pro in 2003, racing with the best in the world and living my dream as a professional athlete.
It's an amazing feeling when I have a customer who tries a leg on and is able to go snowboarding for the first time.
Sometimes people say, 'Oh, you're doing better now than before the accident.'That irritates the hell out of me.
I travel a lot. I didn't want to be stuck sitting in my office managing the business.
I know firsthand the way that Fox supports their athletes because they've been there for me since the beginning. I know that I can count on them.
