Many Olympians train in world-class facilities, but gold medalist Nick Baumgartner simply walks into his own backyard.

At 44 years old, Team USA’s oldest athlete from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is chasing another Olympic Games—not with fancy equipment or world-class coaches, but with grit, experience, and a snowboard track he carved with his own two hands.

On a quiet, snowy street just outside Iron River, where harsh winters are a way of life, sits a house with a yard that doubles as a snowboard track.

“Alright, it’s time to do Olympic training, Bates Township edition,” said Baumgartner.

No chairlift. No groomers. The sponsor’s logo is on a propane tank.

Just a snow shovel, a chainsaw, and a 44-year-old snowboarder who built his own course by hand.

“I put in 20 to 30 hours building this track at my home. And when it’s all done, it’s a heck of a place to train right outside my door,” Baumgartner said.

Every day on Nick Baumgartner Way, he straps in and drops down his homemade track—every bump and turn carved himself. His mantra is simple: outwork everyone.

When asked if he thought anybody outworked him, Baumgartner said, “Absolutely not. I’m sure there are a few of them that do the same amount of work as me, and they’re doing everything they can, but no one’s outworking me.”

Baumgartner is the oldest athlete on the U.S. snowboard cross team—by far.

He’s old enough to be the father of some of the guys he races with.

“The older I get, the more people say, ‘Aw, he’s not a threat this time. He’s not a threat this time.’ Fall asleep on me. See what happens?” Baumgartner said.

Most mountain athletes slow down in their 30s, but Nick won gold at 40.

“This thing does not live on the mantle. This lives in my pocket, in my backpack, or the console of my truck,” Baumgartner said, referring to his gold medal.

Getting to the top of the podium for Team Snowboard Cross in Beijing helped fund his career, but it wasn’t always like that.

“It’s funny. I was working for a concrete company out of Green Bay, Wisconsin,” Baumgartner said, recalling how he supported himself and his son before snowboarding was even an Olympic sport.

Baumgartner’s training doesn’t stop in his backyard.

To build the strength he’ll need for the upcoming Olympics in Italy, he makes the long drive to Marquette, where the work looks different, but the mindset stays the same.

Out-train the competition. Inside advantage training includes intense squat racks and sprinting sessions.

Baumgartner knows he has the advantage—as the “old man”—working out with guys half his age.

“As long as nothing pops, we love it,” Baumgartner said.

He’s the one who’s been there, fallen short, but always gotten back up.

“The last thing I want to do is come around these young kids and look old. So I work a little bit harder, and then when I can come here, and I can test some of these kids, it pushes them as well,” Baumgartner said.

Always turning limitation into an edge, Baumgartner cross-trains with mountain biking, surfing, and other activities.

After decades in a sport built on speed, Baugartner has proven something true: sometimes the longest and most difficult path in life often leads to the highest peak.

And sometimes, it starts in your own backyard.

Baumgartner does train on professional courses, but he built his home course to make sure no one outworks him.

He does at least ten laps on his course every day as part of his training regimen.

We should hear soon whether Baumgartner and his teammate, Jake Vedder from Pinckney, will represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

Labor unions, community leaders and faith groups are calling for an economic blackout in Minnesota on Friday to protest the surge of federal immigration agents in the state and mourn Renee Good.

Organizers are urging Minnesotans not to work, shop or go to school. The Trump administration has dispatched some 3,000 federal agents to the state, in what it claims amounts to its largest enforcement operation thus far, amid a broader crackdown on immigration.

More than 2,400 people in Minnesota have been arrested in recent weeks. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Good, 37, in Minneapolis earlier this month.

“There is an unprecedented and outrageous attack being waged against the people of Minnesota. I have never seen anything like it in my life,” said Kieran Knutson, the president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 in Minneapolis. “This is just an outrageous acceleration and escalation of violence toward working-class people.”

The CWA, which represents workers in the state at companies including AT&T, Activision and DirecTV, is one of several local unions organizing and supporting the planned economic blackout.

Others include Unite Here Local 17, Saint Paul Federation of Educators and Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59.

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, the president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, said: “Working people, our schools and our communities are under attack. Union members are being detained commuting to and from work, tearing apart families. Parents are being forced to stay home, students held out of school, fearing for their lives, all while the employer class remains silent.”

“I think what generated the idea for this action comes out of the need to figure out what we can meaningfully do to stop it,” said Knutson. “The government in the state of Minnesota has not offered any path towards stopping these attacks, this violence.”

Knutson expressed hope that “the CEOs of all these corporations that are based in Minnesota take notice”.

Large US corporations headquartered in Minnesota include Target, Best Buy, United Healthcare and General Mills. None immediately returned requests for comment.

As the administration continues to send ICE agents to the Minnesota region, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey has complained in recent days that the city’s police are outmanned and outgunned.

“Can our cops arrest them? From a legal perspective, yes,” he said during an interview on the Bulwark podcast. “From a practical perspective, to state the reality, it does get kind of hard when they drastically outnumber us, and they have bigger guns than we do. We don’t want to create warfare in the street.”

A blackout by workers can send a message, Knutson said. “Those of us in the trade union movement understand the leverage and power that our labor has, and we are going to try and use that, because really there’s nothing else left,” he told the Guardian. “The idea is that we use our collective power to show those that rule this country and those that profit off of our labor that there’s a cost to attacking our communities this way.”

Organizers held a press conference last Tuesday, outside of the Hennepin county government center in Minneapolis, to announce that the event, which will also include a march and rally in the city’s downtown at 2pm local time.

“On Friday, January 23, we are calling for a day of truth and freedom,” said JaNaé Bates Imari, a minister and co-executive director of the multi-faith non-profit Isaiah. “It is a day where every single Minnesotan who loves this state and this notion of truth and freedom will refuse to work, to shop, and to go to school. What we have experienced and are experiencing in the state of Minnesota is not normal.”

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the planned economic blackout.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “The fact that those groups want to shut down Minnesota’s economy, which provides law-abiding American citizens an honest living, to fight for illegal alien murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, drug dealers, and terrorists says everything you need to know.”

The spokesperson reiterated the administration’s claim that Good “weaponized” her car before the shooting. This account of the incident has been disputed by local and state leaders in Minnesota, as well as by eyewitnesses. Video footage of the shooting appears to show Good’s vehicle turning away from the officer as he opened fire.

The DHS spokesperson added that “if these community and faith leaders wanted to take a stand for the vulnerable”, they would stand with federal law enforcement officers, whom the spokesperson claimed have faced a sharp increase in assaults and vehicle attacks. They did not provide evidence for this allegation.

“These men and women are moms and dads who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect innocent, law-abiding Americans from the dangerous criminal illegal aliens in their communities,” the spokesperson added.

Under the Trump administration, thousands of people targeted by ICE have no criminal record, and numerous US citizens have also been detained.

A magnitude 3.5 earthquake struck southern Illinois in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a tremor felt in neighboring St. Louis, Missouri.

The epicenter was located around 2.5 miles east of Ohlman, Illinois, and the quake had a depth of around 5.5 miles, the USGS said. More than 1,000 people reported feeling the tremor to the USGS.

As well as St. Louis, both sides of the Illinois-Missouri border, the quake was felt strongly in Springfield, Decatur, Effingham, and Greenville.

“This large region borders the much more seismically active New Madrid seismic zone on the seismic zone’s north and west,” says the USGS.

“The Illinois basin-Ozark dome region covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis.

“Moderately frequent earthquakes occur at irregular intervals throughout the region.”

These earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. are “less frequent than in the western U.S.” but are “typically felt over a much broader region,” the USGS says.

The largest earthquake in the region struck in 1968, registering a magnitude of 5.4 and damaging areas of southern Illinois.

Earthquakes of a damaging scale occur in the region every one to two decades, but smaller tremors happen a couple of times a year.

California Earthquake Sparks Emergency Alerts

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck Southern California on Monday evening, centered about 12 miles north-northeast of Indio, according to the USGS.

The quake occurred just before 6 p.m. local time and was felt across parts of the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas.

The temblor was felt widely across Southern California, prompting concern among millions of residents.

As of 7 p.m. local time, four aftershocks measuring magnitude 3.0 or higher had been recorded in the Indio area, with the largest reaching a 3.5 magnitude, USGS data shows.

The USGS initially reported the earthquake as 5.1 magnitude, then revised it down to 4.6 before settling on the final measurement of 4.9.

This adjustment highlights the complexity of real-time seismic data analysis during active earthquake events.

Millions across the region received emergency alerts on their phones seconds before the earthquake struck, according to Patch.

The alerts, part of California’s early warning system, showed that the quake was 5.1 magnitude the originally assessed 5.1 the quake measured magnitude 5.1, based on the USGS’s preliminary assessment.

According to the Southern California Seismic Network, additional aftershocks are expected in the coming days, with the largest anticipated to be approximately one magnitude unit smaller than the mainshock.

However, seismologists noted a small chance—approximately 5 percent—that a larger earthquake could occur, though this likelihood decreases with time.

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