Mick Dierdorff competes during the men's snowboard cross qualification at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Feb. 10, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.
For as long as two-time Olympic snowboarder Mick Dierdorff has been on the mountain, he’s been involved with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC).
When the Colorado native started skiing at four, it was through the SSWSC – which is a non-profit that provides sports and youth development programming in the hopes of producing champions on and off the mountain.
“I was ski racing when I was super young, and then when I was 10-years-old, I decided I wanted to learn how to snowboard and play hockey,” Dierdorff said. “I fell in love with snowboarding and was right back in the Winter Sports Club on the snowboard team.”
The SSWSC is something unique that the 30-year-old world traveler said he hadn’t found anywhere else. “It’s such a special thing in our community,” he shared. When he is in town, hanging out with the kids in the program is one of his top priorities.
“I’ve been in and involved with the club my whole life. Whenever they have questions for me, I always try to be there for them,” he said. “It’s something that I will always be involved with — helping out kids — for the rest of my life.”
Dierdorff’s newest partner, UCHealth, also has a connection with the SSWSC, through the UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center. This was how the two came to form the partnership. “UCHealth found that I’m somebody who values community and a lot of the same things that they strive for, so that’s why they decided to support me,” the boardercross athlete said about UCHealth, who was proud to partner with a Colorado hometown athlete.
“Knowing that they are also tied in with the community in Steamboat Springs was important to me.” As an athlete — and someone who chases adrenaline sports — Dierdorff has spent his fair share of time in hospitals. “I’ve definitely been in and out more times than I would like, but I’ve also been pretty fortunate in my snowboardcross career that I haven’t had any major injuries,” he said. Though with his career comes crashes — and physical therapy.
Mick Dierdorff competes during the men's snowboard cross qualification at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Feb. 10, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.
Though with his career comes crashes — and physical therapy. “I’ve had to do physical therapy through UCHealth. Our sport is kind of crazy. You hit these jumps and are going so fast, it’s pretty rough on your knees and back,” Dierdorff admitted. “My back has been an issue throughout my career.” His career included a fifth-place finish at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and, most recently, a spot on the team that competed at the Beijing Games, where he came in15th.
Going into the 2022 Games, Dierdorff said he felt a podium spot was his for the taking. And from the beginning, it looked that way when he passed Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle in the opening elimination round to finish first. But when he tried to do it again in the quarterfinals, he got squeezed into a corner and spun out. Haemmerle ultimately went on to win gold.
“That was a tough one,” Dierdorff remembered. “Going into the Olympics, I had found a spark and a fire where I was racing similar to previous years. The best I can compare it to is when I won the world championship in 2019. I felt like I could make something special happen that day.”
In 2019, Dierdorff became the first American man to win a snowboardcross world title in 14 years after Scott Wescott did in 2005. Though the last couple of years, he said, have been about learning how to deal with adversity and learning how to cope. It’s a skill everyone in the world is navigating. “Beijing was a lot more of a mental challenge, just knowing it was a different circumstance,” he said about the Games fraught with coronavirus measures. “But that’s been the world the past couple of years,” said Dierdorff.
Now that his season has ended, he was happy knowing he did his best. “Ultimately, I made it through the season healthy, and that’s a huge check off the list at the end of the year. My ultimate goal was making it to the Games, so it felt great to know I pulled that off.”
As for next season, he’s not sure what that will look like yet.
“I will probably do fewer races. I’d love to have a season where I can do more things at home and spend time with the kids in the Winter Sports Club — go to some of their training,” Dierdorff said. “That’s one of my goals for next year is to be more present. And then at the races that I go to, just give it my best and have as much fun as possible.” Until then, he continues to contribute to his community as a skilled carpenter and helps build homes around Steamboat Springs.
“I’m a blue-collar guy. I grew up working construction jobs, doing carpentry, and building homes. That’s my passion. And what I plan to do outside of sport for the rest of my life,” he said.
UCHealth is part of the USOPC’s National Medical Network and is the Official Hospital of the Colorado Springs U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center. They work to assist athletes with their health and wellness journey.
Lisa Costantini #
Lisa Costantini has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than a decade, including for the International Olympic Committee. She is a freelance writer who has contributed to TeamUSA.org since 2011.
