Team USA Paralympic Snowboarder Overcomes a Mountain of Challenges in his Pursuit for Gold
After a snowmobile accident during a professional competition in 2008 resulted in the amputation of his leg, Mike Schultz knew there was only one thing to do: find a way to continue competing in the sports that he loves. Ten years later, Mike is now a first-time Team USA and Paralympic Snowboarder. Schultz joined us to share more about his story and what motivates him to get up and get started each day.
In order for Schultz to continue to compete, he had to create the prosthetic knee and foot. Schultz set out to design a better leg to get back into action. He then went to LA for the X Games and came home with a silver medal. Dirt bike and snowmobiles weren’t enough. As a para-athlete, he taught himself to snowboard, and now finds himself representing Team USA as a top contender for gold in the 2018 Winter Paralympics.
Initially, Schultz developed the prosthetic leg for himself. After realizing there was demand from other adaptive athletes, he started his own company, called Biodapt. The company supplied the entire U.S. para-snowboard team with equipment for lower-limb amputees.
Tom Shannon, Bowlero CEO, joined Cheddar to discuss the decision to bring the company to the New York Stock Exchange via a SPAC merger with Isos Acquisition Corporation. Shannon said one of the goals of the public offering is to expand operations internationally, noting that Bowlero has the potential to reach worldwide markets due to the sport's popularity. "Bowling is a global market, and I'll give you an example. In South Korea, there are three million league bowlers and 1,200 bowling centers in South Korea alone," he said.
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Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is slated to be the home of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024. The stadium was completed in July 2020 for a price tag of $1.8 billion.
Rachel Bachman, senior sports reporter at the Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she explains how U.S. athletes have been inserted into the middle of a political debate after the country declared a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.
