The star of 2018 in the Tri-County News was clearly “Monster” Mike Schultz. 2018 was the height of his athletic career, so far, and what a year it was! It was exciting to ride along with him through the season. Let’s see if we can get all the highlights here.
Jan. 12, David Muir and ABC News were here at Powder Ridge filming a segment on “Monster” Mike that aired on opening day of the 2018 Olympics.
Jan. 13, Schultz was at Gohmann’s Foods in the morning to sign boxes of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes that feature him on the front (and back). That afternoon, he was at The Body Strength Training Shed to share some of his journey.
Kimball held a send-off for Schultz Feb. 27 at the high school just before he left for Korea.
Schultz won two gold medals and two championship globes Feb. 6-8 in the World Cup Championship in Big White, Canada. He also received the overall championship globe for the whole event.
The 2018 Paralympics began March 9 in PyeongChang, Korea. Leading up to the start, NBC aired promos for them, as they do for the Olympics; Naturally, “Monster” Mike was prominent in those promos. Just days before the start of the Paralympics, Schultz was selected by his entire team, Team USA, to be the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony. His teammates call him “Captain America.” This was one of the highest honors in Schultz’s career, being selected by his peers to represent his team and his country to the world.
Schultz’s events were SnowboardCross March 12 and Banked Slalom March 16. He earned gold in the first event, and silver in the second.
The City of Kimball proclaimed May 6 to be “Monster” Mike Day with a parade through town and a party at Willow Creek Park.
Later in 2018, Schultz was named again to the 2019 Team USA and he decided to compete for another season with a goal of World Champion.
Photo credits: Mark Reis for both photos at right: Mike Schultz as flagbearer for Team USA at the opening ceremonies, and literally leaping for joy after being presented his first Paralympic gold medal;
photo below is a screenshot of the NBC livestream of the Paralympics, at the moment Schultz received
his second medal in the Paralympics, proudly pointing to the flag on his snowboard while wearing his “Captain America” helmet..