Bankert is a Michigan native, born in Grand Rapids,raised in Lake Orion and a graduate of Michigan State University and the University of Illinois.

Bankert moved to Guam in December 1981 with his wife and daughter. In 1986, the Guam National Olympic Committee was accepted into the International Olympic Committee. In August 1987 Bankert moved with his family to Bellingham, Washington, and began trained with members of the Western Washington University cross-country skiing team. In the fall of 1987 Bankert continued his training in West Yellowstone with the U.S. Olympic biathlon team and would represent Guam at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games competing in the 10K biathlon. At 38, Bankert was one of the oldest Olympic athletes at the 1988 Winter Olympics Games. This, combined with the fact that he represented a tropical island, made his a human interest story reported extensively in the media.

After the Olympics, Bankert returned to Guam but soon returned to the United States. In 1996, as part of the Klondike Gold Rush Centennial Celebration, he organized and led "Klondike Bound", a month-long expedition by three fathers and their teenage daughters who retraced the route taken by the original "Gold Rush Stampeders".

Bankert now lives in Staunton, Virginia and is an actor who portrays President Woodrow Wilson as part of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library's living history program as well as on stage and film.