Ever since announcing his return to competitive bowling, Mike Bolland has been getting one question after another from friends, bowlers, podcast listeners, and people discovering his story for the first time.
In this episode of We’re Not Stumped, Mike answers the top three questions he keeps hearing:
🎳 How did he start bowling?
🎳 Why did he walk away from the sport?
🎳 Why is he coming back now at 61 years old?
Mike shares the story behind becoming the first person with limb loss to compete on the PBA Tour, the life experiences that pulled him away from bowling, and how volunteering with Arizona Disabled Sports unexpectedly helped inspire his comeback journey toward the PBA60 World Championship.
This episode is about much more than bowling. It’s about reinvention, resilience, identity, and realizing it’s never too late to take one more shot at something meaningful.
And Mike wants your questions too.
Leave a comment or message with what you’d like him to answer in a future comeback episode.
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In this episode of We're Not Stumped, Mike Bolland sits down with Karen Morales, a wheelchair user and leader of Fora Travel's Accessibility Initiative, to discuss how the travel industry can become more inclusive for everyone. After becoming a wheelchair user in 2020, Karen quickly discovered that planning an accessible trip often meant endless phone calls, unanswered questions, and uncertainty about whether hotels, transportation, and attractions would truly meet her needs. Rather than accepting those challenges, she helped create an initiative that's training hundreds of travel advisors to better serve travelers with disabilities and other accessibility needs.
What if success isn't measured by where you finish—but by having the courage to start? After more than 35 years away from professional bowling, I returned to compete in the PBA60 World Series of Bowling at age 61. I knew the odds weren't in my favor. My body had changed. The equipment had changed. The competition had changed. But this episode isn't really about bowling. It's about the voice inside all of us that says we're too old, too late, or not good enough to chase something that matters. In this solo episode of We're Not Stumped, I share the emotions behind my comeback, the challenges I faced on the lanes, and the unexpected lesson that came from finishing far below where I had hoped. That lesson became a phrase I can't stop thinking about: Take the Shot Anyway. Because you don't need the perfect hand. You just need the courage to use the one you've been dealt.
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