IRON RIVER, Mich. (WOOD) — Father Time is called one of many hardest opponents in sports activities.
Many athletes wrestle with the troublesome actuality that their our bodies can’t do the identical issues they used to earlier than finally calling it a profession.
At 43, snowboarder Nick Baumgartner isn’t prepared to offer in to Father Time — or anybody else he’s racing in opposition to.
He’s nonetheless going to nice lengths to maintain his physique in form and ready for the pains of a snowboard cross race.
“I’m not going to be fast on every single track,” Baumgartner stated. “But you put me in the right situation, you put me on the right track. With my ability to fight through the pressure, I’ve been here for so long, I’m a dangerous person.”
When he’s dwelling in Iron River, he runs the steps at his outdated highschool soccer stadium, earlier than getting in a core exercise on the monkey bars and hopping over hurdles in his particular X-body EMS swimsuit.
Twice every week, Baumgartner makes the 100-mile trek to Marquette for 2 days of exercises at AdvantEDGE Coaching, the place certainly one of his Olympic bibs hangs on the wall — and the place he’s surrounded by youthful athletes.
“And I’ll tell you what, when I train with some of the best high school and college athletes in the region, I don’t want to look old,” Baumgartner stated. “So I do everything I can to push a little bit more.”
The exercises for Baumgartner are nice, however not sufficient for him. He enjoys the outside and is aware of that to maintain up along with his youthful opponents, he’ll want other forms of coaching. So, he jumps on his mountain bike and pedals across the rocky trails.
“I’m not the best mountain biker in the world, so when I go off these big jumps, I’m terrified,” he stated. “And that keeps me comfortable being uncomfortable. So when I get back to my snowboard cross and the door opens up, I don’t think about it. I’m comfortable. I just go for it.”
Baumgartner says he’ll journey for 2 or three hours a day. And to work out his core, he’ll carve his means round Lake Superior on his paddleboard.
Nevertheless, the exercises aren’t his solely passion. Baumgartner typically makes use of an eFoil, which is an electrical surfboard. He says it offers him time to recharge and destress.
“I think it’s important for everyone to have that hobby,” he stated. “That thing that you can do that lets you let go of all of your stress. Just let everything go and enjoy it. Take in the world and recharge yourself.”
When the coaching and days on the water are completed, Baumgartner packs up his gear and turns his ageing white van right into a cellular dwelling. When folks ask him about his car, his response is at all times the identical.
“Everyone always tells me, they’re like….dude. You’re famous,” he stated. “What are you doing driving a van like that? I’m like, guys, just, this is what I got to do. You can either believe the excuses, or find a way to make it happen. So I threw a bed in that van, and here we are.”
It’s the worth Baumgartner pays to be dwelling within the Higher Peninsula and close to his household. A late evening fireplace at his childhood dwelling recharges him and reminds him of how far he’s come — and the way far he’ll go in his pursuit of one other alternative at Olympic gold.
