Olympic Hopeful: Maddy Schaffrick
11/18/2025 02:08PM ● By Sophie Dingle
Photo courtesy of Maddy Schaffrick.
Everyone loves a comeback story. Maddy Schaffrick’s is a good one. She was born and raised in Steamboat Springs, and began skiing at age 2. She started snowboarding at age 7 after watching the X Games on TV. By the time she was 14, she was on the U.S. team for snowboard halfpipe. After three years on the rookie team, she moved up to the U.S. Pro Team for four years.
And then: burnout. At the age of 20, she retired from the sport.
“I was having a great time traveling the world,” she says, “but I was also trying to live in an adult world at a very young age, and I don’t think I really had the maturity or the perspective or the mental skills to handle it.”
Her next move was to return to Steamboat and become a plumber. “I learned that I don’t want to be a plumber,” she adds drily.
During her first winter back in Steamboat, Maddy volunteered for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (“mostly for the free ski pass”) where she coached 7- to 9-year-old snowboarders – the same age that she was when she fell in love with the sport. “Within a week of working with them, I was reconnecting with my love for snowboarding in a way that I had lost,” Maddy says.
The following winter, she decided to work with SSWSC full time, as the head junior and senior team snowboard coach, working with competitive athletes, ages 9-19, doing regional events in all disciplines. “Starting to coach was the start of my healing process from my professional career,” Maddy says. “I think working with the kids, especially the ones who were just starting to compete, helped me reflect on my own experiences and also reframe the industry and competition in a way that was more healthy.”
For the next few years, Maddy continued coaching with SSWSC and eventually took the role of snowboard program director. It was a role that helped her see the industry in a new light. “When I left, I had a lot of resentment and placed a lot of blame on the industry just because I was young and didn’t know how to take accountability,” she says. “And I also kind of felt like competition had ruined this really good thing that I loved.”
When Maddy took a job with the U.S. team as the assistant pro team coach for snowboard halfpipe, she was launched back into the World Cup circuit and the intense professional environment of snowboarding. “It gave me so much reflection and insight to what I had experienced before and what led to my burnout,” she says.
That’s when a seed was planted – she knew she had more to give. Could she do it all over again? She had just turned 30. “I wasn’t old by any means, but I’m on the older end of competitors,” she points out. But she also knew what regret feels like. “Sometimes you don’t realize what you could have done differently until you step out of it,” she says. “I knew that if I could physically perform and do what’s required of me, then my soul needs to do this.”
Now, Maddy is an Olympic contender, with qualifying rounds that begin in December. Over a decade after she quit the sport, a chance to compete in the Olympics would mean the world. “It would mean a lot in a way that I can’t really describe,” she says. “What’s different this time – besides believing in myself and being connected to my purpose – is that I’m way more focused on the journey rather than the outcome. I’m looking forward to enjoying the experience and finding the joy in being a professional snowboarder. I wasn’t connected to that joy before ... because it’s a choice to feel joy or find joy in the grind of it all. When I make it to the Olympics, I want to remain connected to that joy and do everything I can to put the pieces together when it counts.”
Everyone loves a comeback story. Maddy Schaffrick’s is a good one. She was born and raised in Steamboat Springs, and began skiing at age 2. She started snowboarding at age 7 after watching the X Games on TV. By the time she was 14, she was on the U.S. team for snowboard halfpipe. After three years on the rookie team, she moved up to the U.S. Pro Team for four years.
And then: burnout. At the age of 20, she retired from the sport.
“I was having a great time traveling the world,” she says, “but I was also trying to live in an adult world at a very young age, and I don’t think I really had the maturity or the perspective or the mental skills to handle it.”
Her next move was to return to Steamboat and become a plumber. “I learned that I don’t want to be a plumber,” she adds drily.
During her first winter back in Steamboat, Maddy volunteered for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (“mostly for the free ski pass”) where she coached 7- to 9-year-old snowboarders – the same age that she was when she fell in love with the sport. “Within a week of working with them, I was reconnecting with my love for snowboarding in a way that I had lost,” Maddy says.
The following winter, she decided to work with SSWSC full time, as the head junior and senior team snowboard coach, working with competitive athletes, ages 9-19, doing regional events in all disciplines. “Starting to coach was the start of my healing process from my professional career,” Maddy says. “I think working with the kids, especially the ones who were just starting to compete, helped me reflect on my own experiences and also reframe the industry and competition in a way that was more healthy.”
For the next few years, Maddy continued coaching with SSWSC and eventually took the role of snowboard program director. It was a role that helped her see the industry in a new light. “When I left, I had a lot of resentment and placed a lot of blame on the industry just because I was young and didn’t know how to take accountability,” she says. “And I also kind of felt like competition had ruined this really good thing that I loved.”
When Maddy took a job with the U.S. team as the assistant pro team coach for snowboard halfpipe, she was launched back into the World Cup circuit and the intense professional environment of snowboarding. “It gave me so much reflection and insight to what I had experienced before and what led to my burnout,” she says.
That’s when a seed was planted – she knew she had more to give. Could she do it all over again? She had just turned 30. “I wasn’t old by any means, but I’m on the older end of competitors,” she points out. But she also knew what regret feels like. “Sometimes you don’t realize what you could have done differently until you step out of it,” she says. “I knew that if I could physically perform and do what’s required of me, then my soul needs to do this.”
Now, Maddy is an Olympic contender, with qualifying rounds that begin in December. Over a decade after she quit the sport, a chance to compete in the Olympics would mean the world. “It would mean a lot in a way that I can’t really describe,” she says. “What’s different this time – besides believing in myself and being connected to my purpose – is that I’m way more focused on the journey rather than the outcome. I’m looking forward to enjoying the experience and finding the joy in being a professional snowboarder. I wasn’t connected to that joy before ... because it’s a choice to feel joy or find joy in the grind of it all. When I make it to the Olympics, I want to remain connected to that joy and do everything I can to put the pieces together when it counts.”