What monster Paralympic athlete Mike Schultz packs for his races

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When he was 27, snowmobiler Mike Schultz (who earned the nickname “Monster Mike” for his famous courage) veered off the track in a race, flew off his snowmobile, and obliterated his knee. It took multiple surgeries and several days in a coma to save his life. Ultimately, his medical team had to amputate his leg.

Rather than give up his love of action sports, Schultz designed his own prosthetic knee and founded his own high-performance prosthetics company, BioDapt. His prosthetics use a patented linkage system and mountain bike shock absorbers to achieve this precise performance, enabling him to return to competing at the highest levels of the sport. Since 2008, he has won multiple Winter Paralympic Games and World Championships in adaptive snowboarding and slalom.

But most importantly, extreme athletes, amputees and veterans use prosthetics. This includes many of his competitors, who sometimes end up having to repair their equipment right before the event. “You never feel the temptation to ‘fix’ a competitor’s moto knee?” I asked him over Zoom when WIRED caught up with him for a few minutes at training camp for the 2026 Paralympics. (I also made a slightly hurt gesture.)

“I just tell them, ‘Yes, I’m sorry, there’s already a recall on this product. I’ll bring it back to you in April,'” Schultz says. “Make sure you include the ‘just kidding’ part when you write this!” Here’s what Schultz brings to Cortina.

His suit

Regular prosthetics are fine for walking around and going to the grocery store. But for snowboarding—a sport where you fly over jumps and take sharp turns at high speeds—you need a strong, durable tool that can withstand low temperatures, withstand physical abuse, and absorb specific levels of stress quickly. Both the Moto Knee 2 and Versa Foot 2 from Schultz are tuned specifically for this event. “Alignment is critical, otherwise you won’t be able to roll to the edge of your toe or the edge of your heel to make a turn,” Schultz says. “Changes in angle of a half or quarter turn on the set screw are noticeable. Having these alignment options on my legs on the snow is critical to achieving that ultimate performance.”

The helmet

Jiro

Owen MIPS ball helmet

After his plate, the first piece of safety equipment Schultz always has on hand is his helmet. Doesn’t know the brand. I looked at him on Zoom when he held it up. It is a Giro snow sports-specific ball helmet with Mips (short for Multidirectional Impact Protection System) that reduces rotational impact and brain trauma in the event of an accident.

Good multi tool

“As an amputee athlete, my toolkit is extremely important,” Schultz says. He always carries a complete kit with a complete spare set for both prosthetics, as well as spare nuts and bolts in case he has to rebuild the entire device from scratch in five minutes. “Everything is ready to go in case you have a problem, like a crash or a break or something like that,” he says. In addition to allen wrenches, crescent wrenches, and pliers, he also keeps a Gerber multi-tool in his collection. This product is light and pocketable and contains the tools you need to adjust snowboard bindings, such as screwdrivers.

Council

Schultz has worked with Donek Snowboards throughout his racing career. He will probably bring six Donek B-1s to Cortina. His prosthetics work so well that he now rides a standard racing board designed to his dimensions. “Earlier, we tried to do a custom job with torsional resistance to accommodate me, you know, as an amputee who has less control over my ankle pedal or my ankle pressure,” Schultz says. “But for now, I’m running all the standard flex modes.”

Lucky bear

Schultz doesn’t go anywhere without his lucky bear. His daughter Lauren was 4 or 5 years old (she’s 12 now) and Lucky Bear snuck into his bag behind his back for his first ice competition. “I was like, ‘Man, he’s that big!’ Schultz says, pointing. “I don’t have room for Lucky Bear! I have to get spare legs and stuff!” It turned out that Lauren was right, and Schultz has been a world champion in multiple adaptive sports—snowbike, snowcross, snowboarding, and motocross—ever since.

“The coolest part about Lucky Bear is that Lauren now competes in gymnastics, so she has her own little Lucky Bear that goes in her backpack every time she competes,” Schultz says. Naturally, they match. He has a big one, and she has a small one.

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