The Upper Peninsula has good reason to be proud of its own Nick Baumgartner. The All-American wrestler, 2000 Wrestling State Champ (189 pounds), State Champion hurdler and All-State football player added Olympian to his resume in 2010. Then he racked up yet another incredible season in 2011, earning a Winter X Games gold medal and another World Cup win.

His rise in snowboardcross started in ‘04 when he won the USASA Nationals and U.S. Extreme Boarderfest. Then kept the momentum going in '07 by winning the VISA U.S. Snowboardcross Championships at Tamarack Resort, ID. In 2009 Baumgartner added some hardware to his collection with a World Championship bronze medal. Then the former wrestler honed in and grabbed a spot on the 2010 Olympic team after three top-10 finishes, including a podium on the World Cup.

The 2012 season brought two top-10 World Cup finishes and X Games silver in Aspen. Baumgartner started off hot in 2013, taking third at the World Cup season opener in Montafon, Austria. Next up it was the Blue Mountain World Cup, where he took yet another podium. With solid momentum heading into Sochi, who knows where he might end up! 

NICK SAYS
There is nothing more amazing than representing your country at the Olympics, and biting on that gold medal is what I want in 2014 at Sochi.

FIRST TRACKS
Like most people who grew up in the frozen tundra of Northern Michigan, snow found Nick, and he's done (and does) pretty much everything there is to do with the fluff. Snowboarding just came along like the newspaper—daily.

OFF THE SNOW
You’ll find Baumgartner exploring with his son Landon or at the torque series off-road races. It is his prerogative to “tell kids to follow their dreams. They can make their own opportunities in life—play hard, dream big, become!”