Olympic Snowboarder Visits President Obama

An Iron County native is back in the area after doing one last thing as part of the 2010 U.S. Winter Olympic team.

After every Olympics, most athletes on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams make an official trip to Washington, DC.

The trip happened last week.

Snowboarder Nick Baumgartner of Iron River was part of it.

Baumgartner finished 20th in the snowboardcross event in Vancouver.

He says meeting the President wasn’t the only thing he and the other Olympians got to do.

They also visited wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

He says the relentlessly positive outlook that the wounded vets have overwhelmed him — Baumgartner says he hasn’t been the same since leaving that building.

We caught up with him at the Industrial Trades Career Day in Iron Mountain, where he spoke with high schoolers about doing what they love.

He hopes his own background of pursuing something he’s passionate about can encourage teens to do likewise.

Baumgartner should be competing again in September in a Snowboarding World Cup event.

He did have his picture taken with President Obama.

But he doesn’t have the picture yet.

It takes the White House about 3 weeks to send them out.