Like many college football players, former Texas A&M wide receiver Boone Niederhofer had a simple goal: keep playing football for as long as he could. 

He had a solid career as a walk-on, recording 29 catches for 293 yards and a touchdown during his sophomore year in 2014. That dream came to a sudden end, however, in the regular-season finale against LSU his senior year, when he tore his ACL. 

His goal of participating in the Aggies’ Pro Day — and an outside shot at a professional football career — was over.

“I almost had to let that dream go, and you kind of have to mourn that a little bit,” Boone said. “I definitely was sad that I didn’t get that opportunity. But, I believe that in all things, that all things work for good. So I held on to that.”

Nearly a decade later, Boone will be the first Aggie in school history to compete in the Winter Olympics when he takes to the ice in Cortina, Italy, later this month as a push athlete on the United States’ Olympic four-man bobsled team.

The past 10 years have been an up-and-down journey for Boone — not to mention, a delicate balancing act between bobsled training, working full-time and raising a family. But it has culminated in an opportunity that has made the struggle worth it.

With a view looking out over the peaks of the Dolomites in Cortina, Boone thought for a moment about what he’d say to his past self after his football career ended.

“I would just say that, you know, ‘It’s going to lead to something better,’” Boone said. “I would have never guessed that my life went in the direction that it did. And I’m really thankful for that.”

From gridiron to ice track

The first thing to know about Olympic bobsledding is that it’s not quite as fancy of a life as it sounds, Boone’s wife, Chloe Niederhofer, said.

“The sport is not glamorous,” Chloe said. “People will see the sport every four years when they watch the Winter Olympics, and people just sort of assume, ‘Oh yeah, I bet those people are paid,’ or ‘You know, I bet they get a lot of help and fundraising.’ … You have to be scrappy and fight for yourself in the sport to be successful.”

In an Aggie story straight out of a Benjamin Knox painting, Boone and Chloe met on the sidelines of an A&M football game while Boone was visiting his former teammates.

Chloe said — jokingly — that she was hoodwinked. She started dating a former Aggie football player with a petroleum engineering degree and a stable job in the oil sector. But after a layoff and an out-of-the-blue invitation a few months later, she found herself with a jobless bobsledder.

“Bobsled was always a part of our relationship,” Chloe said. “And I always thought it was just so cool, like such a random adventure.”

Boone’s introduction to the sport of bobsled came via former 12th Man Sam Moeller, who invited him to a bobsled combine taking place at A&M in 2018. He impressed USA Bobsled and was invited to participate in a rookie camp before competing in International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, or IBSF, events. 

While Moeller was a driver, Boone found his calling as a push athlete, one of the team members who pushes the several-hundred-pound carbon-fiber vehicle at a dead sprint before hopping into the sled.

Boone isn’t the only converted athlete on this year’s Olympic roster. The other bobsledders Boone has met — including the three teammates in his sled for the games — have backgrounds in college football, collegiate track and field, skiing and other sports.

“[Bobsled] is definitely something to keep in mind if you do not make it to the next level in your sport, but have a dream of continuing to be an athlete,” Boone said. “My whole life, all I ever wanted to be was an athlete from a young age to even now. I still kind of have to pinch myself sometimes that I, even at 32, still get to be an athlete and train for a sport that I love.”

Balancing act

The journey hasn’t come without its share of struggles, though. While Boone was able to help qualify driver Frank Del Duca for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the USA was not granted a spot for the third sled that Boone competed in throughout the season in that Olympics by the IBSF. 

The dream looked like it was over. Far from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, and the ice tracks of Europe where Boone and Chloe had split their time between training and competition, the Niederhofers moved to Midland, and settled in for a more traditional life.

But Boone kept his Olympic hopes alive. He had a bobsled trainer send him workouts, despite him not officially training with USA Bobsled at the time. He set up a home gym, ran sprints in a field and kept up the hard work.

“If we, back then in the early days of our marriage — where the Olympic dream kind of fell apart, and we didn’t have any money, and we were newly starting a family — could look forward and see where we are now, it would just be such a cool feeling and testimony of how far the Lord has brought us,” Chloe said. “And it all started with just an attitude of being open-handed and trusting what God is doing, even when we really don’t understand it or can’t see it, and choosing to keep being disciplined and keep training even if that dream doesn’t work out.”

He didn’t let that stand in the way of his career or family obligations. In fact, it was the opposite. Those family-first moments actually made him a better athlete, Chloe said.

“A lot of small moments of choosing discipline over comfort and choosing to maybe not train a day when he knows we need a Sunday afternoon as a family,” Chloe said. “Like, ‘I’m not going to go to the field and run sprints today. And if that makes me fall behind my fellow athletes, that makes me fall behind.’ And instead, we’ve sort of looked back and realized those moments of rest as a family actually helped him recover and be stronger.”

When an opportunity to prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics presented itself, the Niederhofers felt called to give the Olympic dream one more shot.

Boone does have a full-time job, of course, but his bosses at Civitas Resources have allowed him to work remotely over the half-year stretch of training and competition before and during the Olympics.

“[We] recognized him as a good fit, both from a character and integrity standpoint, but also from a technical standpoint,” Michael Schwarz, Boone’s boss at Civitas, said. “We kind of looked at it as a unique opportunity to support somebody and a pretty exciting dream, pretty once in a lifetime.”

Boone said his experience in Aggieland as a walk-on football player and petroleum engineering student gave him the experience needed to survive balancing work, life and his bobsled career.

“I do think [A&M] has kind of prepared me for this season of my life,” Boone said. “ … I didn’t have a whole lot of time in college for much else. And so, this season of life where I’m working and training and then being a dad to my kids, I have long days, but it’s really fulfilling work.”

Olympic reality

On Jan. 19, years of sacrifice paid off when Boone was named to the Olympic roster. Fittingly, he immediately celebrated with his family as soon as he heard the news.

“Boone walked out with tears streaming down his face,” Chloe said. “And he said, ‘We did it, like, we did it.’”

Through it all, Chloe says she’s proud of the way her husband has been able to balance a once-in-a-lifetime adventure while being present for his family. She thinks that’s what sets him apart from the field.

“That appetite to compete, a lot of really good athletes have that,” Chloe said. “And I think some athletes let that appetite to compete completely take over their life, where family, their relationship with God, their relationship with friends, all takes a backseat. And that desire for competition can just rise to the top and be everything you think about. And Boone has completely circumvented that, somehow. … I’ve never felt like bobsled was more important than our marriage or our family”

When training heats for the four-man bobsled event begin on Wednesday, Feb. 18, and the main competition starts on Saturday, Feb. 21, Boone and his teammates will have their eyes on a medal. But until then, they’re happy to enjoy the Olympic experience.

“It’ll be the biggest competition that I’ve ever gotten to compete in,” Boone said. “And so I’m really looking forward to putting all the hard work that I’ve put in over the last six years on display.”