Olympic champ Nick Baumgartner gets hometown parade

Nick Baumgartner may be back home, but he's still living the Olympic dream.

The 40-year-old four-time Olympian won his first medal - gold with teammate Lindsey Jacobellis in mixed team snowboard cross - last week at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

This week, it's a hero's welcome back home in northern Michigan with a parade in his hometown of Iron River, Michigan on Monday (14 February).

“It’s just such a good feeling when you put so much work and effort into something and you don’t reach that goal. So many times,” said Baumgartner, according to WBAY. "This is a 17-year journey to this, and there’s many times I could have given up, and I think a lot of people would have, and I hope that this story shows people that you need to keep fighting.”

Those moments included a 20th place finish at the Vancouver 2010 Games and a slow start at Sochi 2014 that stopped him advancing to the quarter-finals.

Individually, he came closest to the podium with a fourth-place finish four years ago in PyeongChang.

Baumgartner was a disappointing 10th in the individual snowboard cross event in Beijing, before combining with Jacobellis for gold in the mixed team event.

“It’s different tears today. These tears are so much better," he said of the rebound from individual disappointment to gold days later. "It’s days like that when you’re bummed out and you’re disappointed that make days like today so amazing. That’s why when you have that adversity, you can’t quit. You keep going because the good things are coming."

And who knows, there might be more in store at the Games from Baumgartner who didn't rule out a run at competing at Milano-Cortina 2026.

“If I don’t quit, she’s [Jacobellis] not quitting," he said with a laugh.