A former Texas A&M football player will soon become the first Aggies athlete to appear in the Winter Olympics.
Boone Niederhofer played wide receiver for A&M from 2012-16. But this month he'll represent the U.S. in the four-man bobsled, also know as the bobsleigh, in Milano Cortina, Italy. No former or current A&M student-athlete has appeared in the Winter Olympics since at least 1980, per the school's athletics department.
A San Antonio native who attended Churchill High School and walked on at A&M, he had 35 catches for 327 yards as an Aggie. His lone touchdown came in 2014 against Lamar and he caught eight passes in a game that season against Mississippi State. He graduated from A&M with a degree in petroleum engineering.
Niederhofer, 32, worked in the oil industry before deciding in 2019 to jump into bobsledding. He made his debut at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup in 2021 with Team USA. He did not qualify for the 2022 Olympics, but finished fourth with the four-man team at the 2025 IBSF Bobsled World Championships. Now he's expected to compete for a U.S. Olympic team that hasn't medaled in the four-man competition in over a decade.
“Football is a blue-collar sport, and bobsled is very much that exact same way,” Niederhofer told KBTX-TV. “There’s a lot of work that goes into it. We go fast. We can crash occasionally. So, you have to be pretty tough to be in this sport to begin with.”
His role as a pusher is key in helping the sled attain top speed. Bobsledding competitions begin Monday with medals awarded in the four-man event Feb. 22.
“It’s been, honestly, pretty surreal,” Niederhofer said. “After not making the games in ’22, it’s been quite the journey to get back here and, honestly, just the Lord truly paved the way for me to get back here — from the support of my employer, to friends and family and, obviously, the support of my wife. It’s been an adventure, and I’m just truly honored to get to represent my country at the Olympics.”
