Paralympian Answers Paralympics Questions

The Paralympics

are way more interesting than the Olympics.

Well, thank you for that.

I think so too.

Hey, everybody,

Mike Schultz here, Paralympics snowboarder for team USA.

Let's answer your questions from the internet.

This is Paralympian Support.

[upbeat music]

7_inches_daddy, What are the reasons that US

does so well in the Olympics but not in the Paralympics?

Are you kidding me?

I'm a three time medalist, gold and two silvers,

my teammates carrying well over a dozen medals.

I think we're doing pretty good.

Alright, here's a question from Quora,

What are unique events in the Paralympics?

There's a lot of similarities

and a lot of differences in Olympics

compared to Paralympics.

Paralympics actually means parallel to Olympics,

not paralyzed as a lot of people think.

Paralympics also has a unique logo.

The Olympics have the rings, Paralympics has the Agitos.

The reality is there's far less events in the Paralympics

compared to the Olympics.

In summer, wheelchair rugby is unique.

I got to watch that, that's really exciting.

One unique thing about Paralympic snowboarding

is we do two events.

We do border cross and banked slalom.

Border cross is head-to-head racing

against three other athletes at the same time,

pull out of the start gate at the same time

and race across the finish line over bumps,

and jumps, and turns.

Bank slalom is event race against the clock

through a course of bank turns,

anywhere from like 14 to 20 turns.

I love it, especially when the courses

are built really well,

it's really flowy and a lot of fun to ride.

The unfortunate thing

is we don't get to train on it a whole lot.

A lot of times the only time we get in a bank slalom course

is actually at a competition.

Next one, from LePetitToast,

Does the Paralympics have an objective way

of ensuring the athletes are on a level playing field

when it comes to their disabilities

or is there always a certain level of unfairness?

There's so many different factors with disabilities

and how it affects one.

However, we can't have, you know,

10 or 15 different classification levels.

There would just be too many different classes.

For paralympic snowboarding,

there's two different classification levels for lower limb,

LL1, which is basically two joints that have been affected.

And LL2 is there's one joint that's been affected.

And one classification for upper limb.

I'm above knee amputee, I'm missing my foot and my knee.

So the biggest issue that I have

is I can't pick my left foot up off the ground,

I can't choose to flex my knee.

I have to, like,

rock back on my good side and jump.

Compare that with another athlete that we have in our class,

so he's missing both feet, but has both knees,

and he's able to move both knees perfectly well.

So in certain race courses, you know,

it is a benefit to be able to move both knees

compared to both ankles.

So there's always gonna be some level

of unequal performance in the same classes.

So it's part of the challenge

of being a a paralympic athlete.

Next one from sparks_mandrill,

What are 'ideal riding conditions'?

Number one factor is the sun.

When that sun's shining, that definitely amps up the energy

and the smile on your face when you go out snowboarding,

'cause nobody likes riding in the clouds.

Temperature wise, you know,

I'm digging, like, 28, 29 degrees.

The snow is still fluffy and it's warm.

Today was not ideal, it was like single digits

and 30 mile an hour wind gusts blowing.

It was not ideal. [laughs]

Jordynbebus8, How long was your recovery

and how long did it take to get a prosthetic?

So I was actually injured racing snow cross in 2008

and I had a pretty quick recovery,

especially considering how bad the injury was.

I was actually up on my first prosthesis

five and a half weeks after my amputation,

which is quite speedy compared to most.

I was very motivated to get back on my feet again

and I actually started racing snowmobiles

within a month and a half of my injury

and then racing X Games Adaptive Supercross

seven months after my injury happened

on a leg that I built in my garage,

called it the Moto Knee and Versa Foot.

It was a very basic mechanical knee system

which worked good for walking,

but I really wanted to get back into riding

my motocross bike and my snowmobile.

That was my true passion and my profession at that time.

My second passion in life is I'm a garage guy.

I'm a doer and I'm a maker,

I love to create things in my shop,

and what better thing for me to put my time

and effort in than creating my own prosthetic leg

to allow me to do the things that I wanted to do?

And eventually created a company around it,

and now I'm helping out a handful of other athletes

from around the world,

and a lot of 'em are my direct competitors.

So when you see me racing at the Paralympics,

all the competitors around me

and all the other Paralympic athletes

that are lower limb amputees in the snowboarding world

will be wearing equipment from my company.

Next question's from termeeee.

How does snowboard and ski as an above knee amputee?

Well, I didn't start snowboarding

until after I became an amputee,

so I was kind of learning from scratch.

But I guess the biggest challenge

is you can't really feel where your foot is in space.

So it takes time to really learn

what that feedback feels like,

and there's a lot of different adjustments

for alignment, and air pressures,

and angles of the prosthesis

to help make you balance on top of the board.

Honestly, it took me three seasons

before I really got comfortable on a race course.

And the difference between snowboarding

as an above knee amputee and skiing

is skiing your legs are obviously working independently,

so you're completely relying on your prosthesis

to give you that balance and stability,

compared to on a snowboard

where you're strapped into the board

so your legs are kind of working together.

It's difficult especially on really rough terrain,

but if you're motivated to learn how

to do something, you'll figure it out.

As an adaptive athlete it's all about paying attention

to the details, 'cause you're not gonna

just bolt on a prosthesis and go out and rip runs.

For example, the stance on a snowboard

affects how things are set up.

So if you ride regular, which is your left foot forward,

or ride goofy, which is your left foot in the back,

I'm a left leg amputees,

so I ride regular, so my prosthesis is in the front.

And there are some benefits of that,

I have more power out of my back leg.

But the flip side is the athlete that rides

with their good foot up front and prosthesis in the back,

a lot of times they'll be able

to initiate turns a little smoother compared to what I can.

So there's always a trade off with everything

and how it's set up.

Here's another question from Quora,

What sports are the hardest to make prosthetics for?

The more complex the movements are,

the more difficult it is to recreate

what your body naturally does.

Track and field, sprinting,

it's a very consistent series of movements.

Basically the knee and the foot

are swinging back and forth as fast as possible

and you're trying to get

as much bounce off your toes you can.

So there'll be a mechanical knee

that has basically zero resistance in it

and then it'll be, like,

a carbon fiber leaf spring as your foot.

So when your weight hits it,

it compresses and it extends as quick as possible.

Compare that to snowboarding where we're going down a course

with turns, and rollers,

and jumps, our legs gotta do

a lot more different things at different paces.

The hardest part is finding that happy medium

that works good for quick movements or slower movements.

Like, for example,

you're on a turn going through a berm

and the G-forces are compressing you,

your legs not really moving anywhere,

but it needs to have a consistent resistance there.

You get outta the turn and you're going over a roller

or a jump and you need to absorb that.

So then you need to move quick

and allow your legs to compress and extend when you need it

to give you that stability over the jump or the roller.

And next up we got airlust.

How do snow conditions compare across the world?

Now, that's a good question

because it does have differences depending where you are.

My favorite place to snowboard, personally,

is gotta be Colorado.

Copper Mountain is my favorite place to go,

'cause there's so much different types of terrains

with the jump lines in the parks.

Compared that to like Utah,

Utah's got a little powder more,

compared to like Italy where the wind's blowing

and there's no trees out there,

and it's a lot steeper rock faces,

and the snow situates itself differently.

Commercial-Sock-3270 asks, Skiing or snowboarding?

Well, obviously snowboarding. [laughs]

No, actually,

I learned how to ski as an amputee

before I learned how to snowboard.

I like skiing gates.

I really enjoy like doing GS turns around gates on skis.

But honestly, snowboarding is way more fun.

I love being able to ride rough terrain

on a snowboard better than on skis.

It's just more fun, it's got more style to it in my mind.

Skiing is typically easier to learn how to do,

'cause you're going straight,

and you're able to get around flat surfaces a lot better,

'cause you can skate around.

Compared to a snowboard,

you gotta unstrap and you gotta kick alongside your board,

so you just can't move around flat areas

as good on a snowboard.

And the other, like,

challenge with snowboarding is you're going sideways.

It's an unnatural way to go down the mountain.

So whenever you're in like an uncomfortable situation

or you get scared a little bit,

you just stand up and you rotate,

and when you do that you're gonna catch your toe edge

and you're gonna slap your face into the ground.

So I always tell everybody,

if you wanna learn how to snowboard from scratch,

it's usually like a three day commitment.

The first day is not gonna be too much fun,

the second day it'll start to click,

and then on the third day things will, you know,

hopefully be to the point where you're comfortable,

you know, going from point A to point B

without falling onto your face or your butt. [laughs]

Andydoodle56, he says,

Monstermike, how does that cool prosthetic

used by a winter Paralympians attach to your leg and board?

How does it work?

For my prosthesis, there's three main components to it.

One is the socket that slides over my residual limb,

which is carbon fiber.

It's got a threaded adapter that threads in,

so I'll loosen up a screw,

I'll rotate my everyday walking leg off,

and then I'll just swap this on there.

My foot slides into a standard snowboard boot,

which is not the easiest thing to do,

'cause you can't flatten it out

or stretch it out like you can in a regular foot.

So that's always a little bit of a pain in the butt.

But I just use a standard binding system Burton

with the straps on it.

It's got a foot guard right here

that kind of fills up the space inside of the boot

so the binding strap can tighten up over it

without affecting how the shock moves and compresses,

and then it's just a foam sole plate on the bottom.

The two components that I developed at my company

is the knee, it's called the Moto Knee,

and then the Versa Foot.

There's a common attachment point right here

that connects the foot to the knee.

It's a four-sided pyramid with set screws on it,

so you can just loosen up a couple of the set screws

and swap out components.

And for example, a below knee amputee doesn't need the knee,

so he'll just use the Versa Foot

and attach it at this point here.

Taxpsychological2928 asks,

Why do snowboarders sit in the middle of the slope?

I do not sit in the middle of the slope,

so don't pin that on me. [laughs]

I don't know either.

Yeah, isn't that annoying when people just,

like, plop down right in the middle of the run?

It just messes up everybody,

so don't just stop in the middle of the slope,

go off to the side

and make sure the uphill traffic can see where you're at.

That's safety 101.

From Playful_Interview753,

What's the biggest design challenge

when building a prosthetic that has to function

at freezing temperatures and high impact?

The temperature does affect things.

I mean, I actually just got off the mountain right now,

and basically, single digit temperatures.

So being that there's hydraulic oil

in the shock system here,

the viscosity raises when it's cold,

so it doesn't move as quick.

For example, when I'm sitting around for a while

waiting to get on course, I'll jump up and down

or squat up and down like six or eight times

to get that hydraulic fluid moving.

And then also some of the materials

could get brittle in really cold weather.

So we've chosen materials that, you know,

hold up into, you know,

a wide range of temperatures.

The majority is 7000 series aluminum,

we've got titanium adapters, stainless steel fasteners

to prevent corrosion when we're using 'em in

and around mud, and water, and snow.

And then some of the components here,

like the protective covers that we've got on top of the knee

and then also on the foot, these are a NylonX.

So these are 3D printed parts,

it's basically nylon infused with carbon fiber,

and they seem to hold up pretty good

in the sub-zero weather.

I've had some other materials that have cracked,

you know, when it gets 10 degrees or colder.

It's hard to duplicate some of those high stresses

and high impacts of landing off a big jump.

One of the tests I did, I climb up a ladder six feet up

and I just jump and land on my feet.

That gave me a lot of feedback

on how I should set up the calibration of the shock,

you know, more air pressure or more hydraulic dampening.

I broke a lot of parts and had to refine them.

Lots of trial and error.

Alright, this one's from the amputee subreddit.

How would you describe the feel of snow

through a prosthetic leg when carving or absorbing impact?

Have you ever been on crutches?

A crutch is an extension of your body movement, right?

And so everything feels a little delayed

and the inputs are a little bit different compared to,

you know, putting a weight on your foot,

and that's a lot like what a prosthesis is.

And for me, as an above knee amputee,

you know, there's two flexible joints.

You have your ankle joint and you have the knee joint.

So just think of that crutch has two hinges on it

and you have to get the weight just in the right spot

so it doesn't compress on you or,

you know, topple over it.

So that's what it's like on a prosthesis,

and you throw some snow in there and high speeds,

and everything has a little bit of a delay to it.

That's why it's so important

to have perfect body positioning over the snowboard

as an amputee, 'cause you have to,

like, anticipate what's gonna happen

'cause you can't exactly feel it.

Alright, here's a question from snowboarding subreddit.

What is most important to you

when it comes to a snowboard?

The first question is what kind of terrain

are you gonna be riding on?

A lot of times people ride with a snowboard

that's too narrow for their foot size

and so you have extra toe drag or heel drag,

and then when you're going to rail a turn you lose traction

and you slide out.

What I'm always looking at,

so I've got a quiver of like 10 different race boards,

and there's two factors with those.

One is the stiffness of,

you know, how much pressure it takes to to flex it.

And then the other is the side cut radius.

And when you pick up a snowboard

you can see it's kind of shaped like an hourglass.

So this radius here affects how tight you can turn.

This one right here is actually a tighter radius,

it's got eight meters.

Some of my longer BX boards are up to like 13 meter radius.

So that just affects when you go up on your edge,

that radius is gonna help make that turn.

So schmidzz asked,

What are the most important skills to learn

to take on steep black runs?

That's a good one,

I'm not good at steep black runs. [laughs]

It doesn't matter what terrain you are,

but finding that right balance for the slope you're on,

so many times people, just as a reaction,

they sit back seat and they're too much on their back leg,

which, you know,

that affects how quickly you can react

to turn and stop or maneuver.

So on the snowboarding, balances everything,

and that completely affects how your board reacts

to how you're moving or want to move.

So being in the right stacked position

all the time depending on, you know,

flat or steeps, it all matters.

So next one, we got Vallie566,

The Paralympics

are way more interesting than the Olympics.

Well, thank you for that,

I think so too.

Yeah, there's a lot more layers to Paralympics sports,

especially with us in snowboarding.

We're standing upright,

we're using standard snowboard equipment

and then we just use prosthetics.

There's so many different storylines with the athletes.

You know, a lot of us have been

through really tough things in life

that we've had to recover from

and learn the sport over again as, you know,

an adaptive athlete.

You know, as an athlete

you're trying to be tiptop shape physically.

As a Paralympian there's a whole nother level to it,

we gotta carry our extra tools, and nuts,

and bolts with us and there's so much fine tuning

that goes into our prosthetic and adaptive devices.

So you could be in the best shape of your life,

but if your adaptive equipment isn't performing up

to the level you need it to,

that can definitely affect your performance.

It's nonstop working on our physical performance,

but also the performance of our adaptive equipment.

So it gets tricky sometimes.

We got wya42wallabyway,

Genuinely curious, MonsterMike5,

what problem did your Moto Knee solve

that other prosthetics totally missed?

Personally, I've got like two basic prosthesis that I use.

One is my everyday walker, which is really cool.

It's got a microprocessor in it

that controls the hydraulic system.

It doesn't move by itself,

but the computer decides how it reacts to my inputs.

And when I'm riding my snowboard

or riding my motocross bike, you need that resistance there.

It's like flexing your quadriceps as you're in a squat.

So for example, on my everyday walking leg,

if I go into a squat,

there's no resistance helping me hold my body weight up,

it just slowly collapses.

And so on the Moto Knee,

it uses a mountain bike shock in here with compressed air

and there's also hydraulic oil

that controls how quickly things move.

So the air spring is like your quadricep muscles,

they help absorb impacts.

For example, I'm doing a heel side turn.

The air pressure helps support my body weight

as the G-forces add up.

It's the same type of shock in the foot,

and we can adjust the air pressure

basically from zero up to 300 PSI,

which controls how quickly things react, and compress,

and extend, just like your mountain bike.

And for this one specifically, this is my snowboard leg,

and the alignment requires a lot of flexion

in the knee right here, which makes it unstable to walk on.

So for example, I shift weight into it,

it's gonna flex.

So when I'm walking to the lift

or I'm walking around the resort,

I've got a mechanical walk

so it prevents the knee joint from flexing.

And when I strap into the snowboard and I pull the pin,

and I'm ready to go.

The unique part about it is the adjustability.

So I can make this work for a lot of different activities

via the different settings, alignment options,

and air pressures and hydraulic pressures.

So when I get on my snowboard

and I wanna huck it over a big 50, 60 foot jump,

the hydraulic system and the air pressure

work like my leg muscles

or my quadriceps to absorb those impacts.

When I first started back in spring of 2009,

there was very little options

for that type of a knee system.

And like, I wanted to make it versatile

for a lot of other sports, board sports,

skiing, motocross, mountain biking,

water sports, water skiing,

wakeboarding, horseback riding.

Probably the number two most common use

for it is actually strength training in the gym,

lifting weights, doing squats,

and jumps, and that kind of thing.

So here's a question from Quora,

What's the most common misconception

people have about Paralympic athletes?

So many people just think

we are excited to be able to do our sport.

The reality is when you get to the Paralympic level,

we are competitors, true competitors through and through.

We put in as much work

and effort as any other professional level athlete.

Alright, next question.

Dafw, How do you qualify to be a Paralympian?

Each sport is a little bit different,

for us in the Para snowboard world,

so we have a series of national level races

where we accrue points,

and then we go to like a continental cup

and you accrue points.

The ultimate is actually the Paralympic games

that only happen every four years.

But we have a World Cup tour

with eight to 10 rounds every year.

From thekrispringle, Random 3:00 AM thoughts,

I wonder where the next big leap in prosthetics will be,

materials, sensors,

AI tuning, or something totally different?

Honestly, I see the integration of electronics

that can adapt to our nervous system,

so we can actually control what our limb does.

There's been some really big advancements

in upper limb prosthetic technology,

to where they're gathering information from muscles

and nerves that can control like a wrist movement

and finger movements.

Just expanding on that,

'cause the ultimate goal for me as an amputee

is being able to make my prosthetic limb

do what I want when I want.

Right now it's just reactive

to whatever weight I shift into it

and it just has two movements.

It can swing free or it can have resistance.

If we had control over when and how that movement

and resistance reacted,

that's when things get really cool.

From the Olympic subreddit, they're wondering,

How do most Olympic athletes earn a living?

The reality is there's probably only 1% of Olympians

and Paralympians that actually make enough money

by just doing their sport.

The majority of the money from the top level Olympic

and Paralympic athletes comes from partnerships,

sponsors that support 'em.

The unique thing about Olympics

and Paralympics is we only have this big event

once every four years,

and a lot of times we don't get that financial support

and partnerships, you know,

the three years between.

So we're preparing and putting effort in for four years,

and you know, our big show is only every four years.

And some of the partnerships, and sponsorships,

endorsements, some of 'em are pretty black and white,

but some of go far deeper than just, you know,

slapping a sticker on your helmet or taking a photo for 'em.

For example, doing TV commercials or doing public speaking,

a lot of that happens on the Paralympic side.

One of my big partners now is Autodesk, we align very well.

It's a CAD software company

that they're helping me further development of, you know,

some of the new innovative components that, you know,

I got on my drawing board back home.

Alright, this one's from chasmawalaladka,

Can Paralympic athletes participate in Olympics?

Yeah, if they're physically capable

of performing at a competitive level at the Olympics,

yeah, there's nothing really stopping 'em,

as long as there's no assistive or adaptive devices

that excels their performance

over a regular, able-bodied athlete.

AzysLlia, Has any Paralympic athlete

beaten Olympic athlete results

in the same event in the same year?

I know there's a sprinter,

he's a bilateral BK amputee who had very competitive times

that was right up into the times as Olympic level.

So, yeah, they can run fast.

A bilateral BK amputee who's got two running blades,

there is a point to where the stride can be longer

than an able-bodied person,

and therefore there's been people saying that, you know,

it's an advantage.

Well, it may be stride for stride,

but there's a flip side to it as well.

So if a bilateral amputee

is trying to run out of the starting blocks,

it's not gonna be as quick as somebody with two good feet

that can power out of the blocks.

Alright, here's another question from Quora,

How are advanced prosthetics changing the world of sports?

It very much can affect the overall performance

of an athlete depending on their prosthetic equipment.

2014 was the first Paralympic games

that had snowboarding in it.

Look at the performance then to what it is right now,

and it is incredible to see the level of performance

and speeds increase since then.

And it's pretty cool to be part of it,

both as an athlete as well as a prosthetic designer,

and it's not slowing down.

So those are all the questions we have for today.

Be sure to tune in

to the Paralympics 2026 Milano Cortina in Italy.

It's gonna be awesome.

Thanks for watching Paralympian Support.

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