Autodesk Partners with Paralympic Medalist Mike Schultz to Advance Prosthetic Innovation
TECHNOLOGY
The partnership builds on months of collaboration in Autodesk Fusion to redesign and refine key components of Schultz’s competitive prosthetics.
Three-time U.S. Paralympic medalist and BioDapt founder Mike Schultz is retiring from competitive para snowboarding after his final competition in Cortina next month. Autodesk has announced a partnership with BioDapt to develop next-generation prosthetic technology for para athletes preparing for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics and beyond.
The collaboration builds on months of technical work between Autodesk and Schultz using Fusion, Autodesk's AI-powered industry cloud for manufacturing, to redesign key components of his competitive prosthetic systems. As Schultz transitions fully into his role as BioDapt CEO, the partnership aims to scale innovation across winter and summer para sports.
From Competitor to Full-Time Innovator
Schultz's career has balanced two identities: elite athlete and maker. After losing his leg in a 2008 snowmobile accident, he designed and built his own prosthetic capable of withstanding competitive snowboarding. In 2010, he founded BioDapt, which today supports approximately 90% of lower-limb athletes globally competing in Para Snowboard World Cup events. About 25 athletes are expected to compete in Cortina wearing equipment Schultz developed.
His competitive achievements include gold and silver medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympics, where he was selected by teammates to carry the U.S. flag during the opening ceremony. He won the 2018 ESPY Award for Best Male with a Disability and returned to competition in 2022 to earn another silver medal at the Beijing Paralympics.
Global Impact Beyond Elite Sport
The partnership addresses a fundamental challenge that extends far beyond competitive athletics. According to the World Health Organization, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide require one or more assistive products, yet access can be as low as 3% in some countries. While BioDapt focuses on high-performance sport, the underlying challenge is design and manufacturing: building complex, durable products that are repeatable and scalable.
The design efficiency, manufacturability, and data continuity advances that support para athletes are the same capabilities Autodesk helps manufacturers apply across industries, from medical devices to advanced equipment, building product fabrication, and consumer products, to improve reliability, reduce cost, and expand access at scale.
Technical Innovation with Autodesk Fusion
Ahead of his final competition, Schultz worked with Autodesk Research and Fusion teams to consolidate years of prosthetic development and legacy CAD models into Autodesk Fusion, establishing a centralized Fusion Hub: a cloud-connected source of truth for BioDapt's designs.
The team prioritized improvements to Schultz's ankle frame and binding brace, optimizing for performance and durability in cold conditions. They increased stiffness without extending 3D print time and added hole patterns so one part fits multiple BioDapt leg models, reducing the need for separate versions.
Using Fusion's integrated design, simulation, and design-for-manufacture workflows, Schultz was able to iterate quickly while traveling between training sessions and competitions. The redesign resulted in improved durability during training, with no component failures since the updates, a critical advancement for parts that absorb repeated impact.
Through this winter's competition season, Schultz competed with increased confidence in the reliability and structural integrity of his prosthetic leg, a meaningful outcome in a sport where equipment performance directly influences safety and results.
Future Development Areas
With his focus now fully on innovation in para sports, Schultz and Autodesk are working to help para athletes train for competition in Los Angeles in 2028 and beyond.
Future exploration areas include advanced ankle-frame concepts using metal 3D printing, integration of motion capture and embedded sensor data to better analyze force transfer and fatigue, and using AI-powered tools in Autodesk Fusion to suggest and evaluate design improvements automatically helping adapt prosthetics as training demands change.
"I've always had two sides to my career, competing and building," Schultz said. "For years, I've pushed myself to be the best athlete I could be, while spending countless hours refining the gear that makes that performance possible. As I step away from competition, I'm excited to take everything I've learned and apply it to helping the next generation of athletes go even further."
Schultz noted that working with Autodesk has helped BioDapt better understand how forces transfer, where materials fatigue, and how small design changes can make a measurable difference, not just for one athlete, but for many.
Integrated Design and Manufacturing Platform
"Mike has the rigorous mindset of an elite athlete and an engineer," said Jeff Kinder, EVP of Design and Manufacturing at Autodesk. "With Autodesk Fusion, we've brought together design and make in a single, cloud-based platform, connecting teams, data, and workflows while leveraging AI to accelerate development from concept through production. This integrated approach creates a repeatable model for high-performance prosthetic innovation for any athlete."
Documenting the Journey
Schultz's transition from competitor to full-time innovator is documented in "Built to Move," a three-part docuseries co-produced with TFA Group launching March 6, 2026, on Autodesk.com.
BioDapt's success in competitive para sports demonstrates the potential for design technology to address broader accessibility challenges. By establishing repeatable, scalable manufacturing processes for high-performance prosthetics, the partnership aims to advance both competitive equipment and the underlying methods that could eventually improve access to assistive technology more broadly.