Former Stadium Super Trucks and TORC driver Nick Baumgartner is looking for another gold medal at this year’s Winter Olympics. The American will once again compete in Snowboard Cross, whose events will take place on Thursday.

Baumgartner made his Olympic debut in 2010, when the discipline was called Boardercross, finishing 20th. After a frustrating 2014 Games in which he was classified 25th, he narrowly missed out on a medal when he placed fourth in the 2018 Games.

His tough luck continued in the 2022 Beijing Games when he was one spot shy of qualifying for the men’s individual final, but finally broke through when he and Lindsey Jacobellis won the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross gold. At 40 years of age, Baumgartner is the oldest person to win an Olympic snowboard medal.

Now 44 years old, he’s keen on replicating the magic in Cortina. Despite his age, Baumgartner has been open about continuing his career as long as his body permitted, especially for when the Winter Olympics come to Salt Lake City in 2034.

He wrote on Wednesday:

Tomorrow I step into the Olympic start gate for the fifth time.

Four years of early mornings.
Four years of sacrifice.
Four years of choosing the hard road when it would’ve been easier not to.

And now it all comes down to this. Nobody expects a 44-year old to win.

Good!

Being counted out has built my whole career. Doubt is fuel. Experience is my advantage. Every failure. Every podium. Every lesson learned.

Tomorrow I lean on race craft, grit, and 16 years of Olympic scars.

To everyone who just joined this journey, thank you. It means more than you know. I feel the support. I carry it with me. Time to put on a show.

Let’s go to battle.

While the snow is Baumgartner’s forte, he’s no stranger to dirt and sand.

He began racing Stock Trucks in TORC a year after his maiden Olympics, finishing third at RedBud in his debut then winning at the Crandon Brush Run. In 2012, he finished sixth in the TORC Pro Light standings and won Class 2 at the Baja 1000, sharing the latter truck with Clyde Stacy.

When Stacy’s close friend Robby Gordon created the Stadium Super Trucks in 2013, Baumgartner was among the inaugural crop of drivers. He finished sixth in the first-ever SST race at Phoenix and would run the first six rounds of the season, wrapping it up with a third at the Edward Jones Dome before shifting his focus to the 2014 Olympics. His last SST start was at the 2014 X Games in Austin, where he made the final and placed eighth.

Baumgartner isn’t the only person from the motorsports world competing in Italy. Simona de Silvestro, who’s done IndyCar, Formula E, and Supercars, is representing the host country in bobsled.

Featured image credit: Stadium Super Trucks