Half pipe hotshot Maddie Mastro is a self-confessed adrenaline junkie
COLLAGE BY MAXWELL N. BURNSTEIN.
In the lead up to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang on February 8, 2018, we will be introducing 10 young athletes who will be stealing America’s hearts and standing on the podium.
An Olympic goal at the age of 10 is what launched Maddie Mastro nose first into the half pipe. Now the 17-year-old California snowboarder could eclipse her dreams as an Olympic hopeful in women’s half pipe at the winter games.
Scoring a bronze at this year’s X Games in Aspen with a surprise frontside 1080 in her third and final run, Mastro is headed into the games with some vicious momentum. And she’s got even more surprises up her sleeve: Haakonflips, cripplers and McTwists all round out her tricked-out menu of stunts.
Picking up snowboarding age six, she’s worked hard to make it this far. Dedicated to refining her practice, Mastro snowboards like it’s a performance, a visual expression of the body off the half pipe. Her ability to self-visualize her stunts brings an art to the sport that will be her key to nabbing a medal for Team USA in PyeongChang.
Snowboarding is…
A creative thing for me that I could make my own. I really enjoyed putting my own personal touch on something like that. The people I was inspired by and the snowboarders I looked up to had a big influence on what my snowboarding is today—creativity is part of how I snowboard.
What sets my style apart is…
My ability to visualize myself going through the moves. If the trick feels good I know it looks good, so I make sure it’s as smooth as possible. I do everything with a purpose and there’s a reason behind it because I want it to be more creative or stylish.
My technical ability…
Is just from picking at my snowboarding; pulling it apart and making it more refined.
Getting air gives me…
Adrenaline. Once I get the rush, it’s an addiction. You keep craving it and wanting to do more, go bigger, and the sport fuels it. Adrenaline is a big part of what has driven me.
For my Olympic performance…
I have all of the control. I can do whatever I want for it and be as creative as I want. I can make it my own thing no matter what and that just how snowboarding has to be for me.
The training involved…
Gets me ready for the runs and the tricks I want. There is a lot of training off snow as well, but for on-snow it’s repetition. Trying, falling, trying it again and tweaking things until its how you want it to be. Then it’s up to you to put it all together to make the perfect run.
The community around women’s snowboarding…
Building new friendships will all these girls and women around me has been really nice and super inspiring. To have so many progressive women pushing the sport and have fun doing it with them, then being able go home at the end of the day to hang out with them makes me feel we have a really good thing going.
The best win…
Was getting third place at the Burton U.S. Open. It’s a legendary snowboard contest that I grew up watching and put it on a pedestal. It was amazing to go to that contest and get third.
Competing at the Olympics…
I have to treat every contest the same. I’m just going to go and snowboard, do my tricks and have fun with it like I did at the U.S. Open. Hopefully I can recreate that.
To get to this stage of my career…
Has been a struggle, on and off the snowboard. Snowboarding is very expensive sport so it was a very big financial burden on my family. There were times snowboarding wasn’t going to be my future due to that, which was a big a difficulty my family and I had to overcome. Luckily I have amazing parents who are very supportive. Then on the snow it’s a big mental game between falling, learning new tricks, and overcoming a lot of fear.
The fear drives me…
To talk to myself into doing it, like “are you really going to be afraid of this? You do stuff that is way scarier…so there is no need to be afraid of this? You are more than capable of doing it!” Fear is good and we all have it. It’s just what you do with that fear and how you progress with it.
To get ready to compete…
I snowboard. I like riding half pipe, and having fun with the sport. I am excited to just go and do my thing, and show at all these contests.
LEARN MORE AT TEAMUSA.ORG. THE WINTER OLYMPICS BEGIN LIVE ON FEBRUARY 8, 2018. THE PARALYMPICS START ON MARCH 9, 2018.
