This is what peak athleticism looks like.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Adobe Stock, Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images, Mine Kasapoglu/Anadolu via Getty Images, and Zhang Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images. When Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl crossed the finish line in the men’s parallel giant slalom last weekend, he did what any testosterone-fueled athlete might upon realizing he’d just won Olympic gold:and emitted a primal scream as he flexed for the crowd.
Depending on your perspective, this display was made either more impressive or more embarrassing by the fact that Karl is 40 years old—positively ancient by competitive snowboarding standards. Karl’s children may well have cringed to see their ol’ dad go topless in public. But, for me, the moment stands as the defining symbol of what I’ve come to think of as the Old Guy Olympics. Moreso than other Olympics I’ve covered, the Milan Cortina Games boast an unusually high number of athletes who are “too old for this shit” in the best possible way. There are always a few middle-aged outliers competing at the Olympics, and especially at the Winter Olympics, which features a number of events that a relatively fit middle-aged person could compete in without immediately dying. These venerable competitors—among them, the guiding light of the Mexican Ski Team—typically represent non-medal-contending nations. For these older athletes, merely finishing their races is a major accomplishment. What’s different about Milan Cortina is that plenty of these older competitors aren’t there just to trade pins in the Olympic Village. There’s Karl, whose parallel giant slalom gold was his fourth Olympic medal over the course of five Winter Games. There’s 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn, whoselast weekend ended a comeback bid that, despite what some critics have claimed, was far from a vanity project: She’s the, the most decorated American bobsledder in Olympic history, is also back at the Games at age 41. Meyers Taylor, who will compete next week, has won five Olympic medals, including a silver in Beijing in the women’s monobob. The gold medalist in that event in Beijing was Meyers Taylor’s teammate Kaillie Humphries, who at 40 years old is also back for another shot. One of the greatest comeback stories of these Games belongs to 42-year-old Deanna Stellato-Dudek, who retired from figure skating in 2001 before mounting a comeback 16 years later. The Chicago-area native, who, won the pairs title at the 2024 World Championships. When she competes this weekend she’ll become the oldest female Olympic figure skater in nearly 100 years.—made her the oldest women ever to win an Olympic medal in Alpine skiing. And there’s 40-year-old Dutch speedskater Jorrit Bergsma, who took bronze in the 10,000 meters on Friday, becoming the oldest man to win an Olympic speedskating medal. (Bergsma is known as the “mullet man” for his unusual hairstyle. His fans, known as the “Matties,” also wear mullets and headbands when cheering him on. They recently recorded a song called “,” which has apparently become a hit among the Dutch speedskating set—which, to be clear, does not mean that the song is anSo, what’s the deal with all of this superannuated superiority? In a word, science. Training and recovery methods these days are sufficiently advanced to keep a motivated 40-year-old performing like a normal 30-year-old., I’m gonna continue to put the work in and I’m gonna continue to redefine what people think is possible,” 44-year-old American snowboarder Nick Baumgartner told NBC on Thursday. An Upper Peninsula native who spent many years pouring concrete for a living, Baumgartner was one of. Back then, he narrowly missed the semifinals in his signature event, the snowboard cross, and gave a tearful post-race interview in which he faced up to the fact that, at 40 years old, he was “running out of chances” to win an Olympic medal. Days later, he teamed with 36-year-old teammate Lindsey Jacobellis to take gold in the inaugural running of the team snowboard cross event.In contrast to the agony and catharsis of his Beijing experience, Baumgartner’s time in Milan Cortina has felt more like a hard-earned victory lap. On Thursday night’s primetime telecast, Baumgartner played to the cameras on his way to the starting gate. “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!much fun!” he said, clapping his hands while addressing the camera. “Hey, for everyone back home, it’s never too late to follow your dreams. I’m 44, baby!You will perhaps forgive Baumgartner for hamming it up during his quadrennial turn in the national spotlight—and you’ll forgive him for refusing to call it quits after missing out on the snowboard cross event finals for the second Olympics in a row. In his post-race interview with NBC’s Tina Dixon,, announcing that he planned to keep racing despite his relatively advanced age. “I love this so much,” he said. “If you find something you love, it doesn’t matter how much work you gotta put in, you’re happy to do it. And I’ll continue to do it, because I love what I do, you saw that out there. I never had so much fun losing in my life!”promises—Ruohonen has spent decades curling at a high level, but had never made it to the Olympics. He finally got there as the alternate on Danny Casper’s U.S. men’s curling squad, and he’s made the most of his time at the Milan Cortina Games.The Winter’s Most Controversial Movie Has Revived a Decades-Old Debate. There’s Still No Clear Answer.. “I am a lawyer, as you know, and we have a constitution, and it allows us freedom of press, freedom of speech, protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures and makes it that we have to have probable cause to be pulled over,” he said. “And what’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of gray. It’s clear.”Given that Ruohonen is at the Games as an alternate, he might have seen that press conference as his best chance to make his Olympic mark. But on Thursday, with Team Casper down by a nigh-insurmountable six points in the eighth end of a round-robin match, Casper made the call to sub Ruohonen into the game. When he checked in—in true old guy fashion, he kept his baseball cap on the entire time—it made him the oldest athlete to ever compete for Team USA in a Winter Games. As he delivered the stone down the ice, his teammates swept it into strategic position. “Good shot, Rich,” they yelled.
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