The ups and downs of a Steamboat Springs snowboarder’s unconventional career

By Malena Larsen

Plumbing. A boxing studio. A decade-long hiatus. This is the unlikely recipe for extreme sport greatness for Maddy Shaffrick. Shaffrick is a professional halfpipe snowboarder from Steamboat Springs, home of the famous “champagne powder” and jutting aspen groves. Her snow sports journey can be traced back to when she was about two years old and was plopped on skis for the first time, in classic Colorado fashion.

Maddy Shaffrick’s road to the 2026 Olympics goes through Colorado
This week: First qualifier at Copper Mountain
Dec. 17 — Women’s qualifiers
Dec. 20 — Women’s finals
Next month: Second qualifier at Aspen Snowmass
Jan. 7 — Qualifiers
Jan. 9th: Finals
Jan. 16-17: Official team selection
February 2026: Olympics
Feb. 7: Opening ceremony
Feb. 11: Competition begins in Livigno Snow Park, Italy
Feb. 12: Women’s halfpipe finals

Her attention shifted from skiing to snowboarding the moment she saw two-time Olympian Gretchen Bleiler on TV in 2006. From then on, she knew she wanted to compete in the Olympics with a drive so intense, it’s almost like it was in her DNA.

“I was only seven years old when I learned how to snowboard,” Shaffrick reminisces. “I put all of myself into it. I remember in second grade, all of my school papers were about it.”

Seven years later, her dedication, drive and school papers all paid off, and Shaffrick joined the U.S. Snowboard Team at 14.

Big Dreams led to halfpipe heartbreak

From age 14 to 20, Shaffrick’s career flourished. She competed in the X Games and World Cups; she found herself at the same competitions as the athletes who had inspired her to pursue snowboarding.

“Being on the same team as Gretchen Bleiler was so surreal,” Shaffrick shares. “It felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”

Despite competing with her idols and achieving long-time goals, her experience wasn’t all stoke and pow days. The weight of expectations were heavy, both her own and the industry’s. The pressure chipped away at Shaffrick slowly and she experienced injury after injury. The sport that used to feel like an escape was starting to feel like an all-consuming job.

“Honestly, I started to hate the sport and resent the industry,” she admits, adding that she felt like she was “going through the motions” for a year. Then in 2015, she put away her snowboard for what she thought was for good.

Maddy Shaffrick | Photo by The Snow League/Andrew Arthur

From halfpipe to PVC pipe

When Shaffrick retired, she was living in Salt Lake City where she had a short stint of working at a boxing studio. Then, she felt called to move back to Steamboat Springs where she made another career switch and worked for a friend who owned a plumbing company.

“It was a good paying job,” Shaffrick describes. “I was learning a lot and I really liked it at the beginning. It was challenging, I got to move around a lot, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my time.”

During this period, she was grieving a breakup with a sport that once brought her joy and purpose. She had to discover new ways to fill her time, to feel motivated again, and to figure out what she wanted her next path to look like.

Those who can do, coach

As Shaffrick reconnected with her Steamboat Springs’ friends, there was talk of getting ski passes for the season. For the first time in years, she thought about snowboarding “just for fun.”

“The problem was that I didn’t really have money,” Shaffrick explains. This led her to reach out to a friend, the director of snowboarding at the Steamboat Winter Sports Club. What started as a way to score a free ski pass ended up becoming her entry back to a sport she loves.

Maddy Shaffrick is featured in this short documentary from the Snow League.

“Coaching helped me see snowboarding differently,” she says. “It’s so fun to see that we’re all humans with different paths to passion. It was great getting to be that supporting character in their lives to help them find their passion.”

For the next seven years, Shaffrick poured herself into coaching and eventually became the snowboard program director at the sports club. In helping her students navigate nerves, pressures, and roadblocks, she found herself slowly healing. She began to remember what mattered most to kids: having fun.

Don’t call it a comeback, she’s been here for years

As Shaffrick started to fall in love again with the not-so-serious parts of the sport, she couldn’t get the thought of competing out of her mind.

“Deciding to come back was about more than results,” she says. “I just knew there was more left in my soul to do. Getting back into it was for that four-year-old that dreamed of being in the Olympics.”

Shaffrick admits she made some questionable choices during her teen years in the sport. “Part of me felt like I sabotaged it,” she shares. “Physically, I was capable — even more so than I am now — but mentally, I lacked the tools. Emotionally, I didn’t have the maturity. Spiritually, I had no connection.”

But this time, she had the tools to approach things differently. “I started snowboarding a bit more, then dropping into the halfpipe, then doing a couple of my tricks.”

What is the halfpipe event?
Snowboarders and skiers ride a U-shaped snow structure (called the halfpipe), where they perform a series of aerial tricks from one side to the other. Judges score runs based on amplitude (height above the pipe), difficulty of tricks, execution and overall flow.

Dropping in after a decade

Despite results not being the focus for Shaffrick, great results are what she got. In December 2024, she dropped into her first World Cup in nearly a decade at the Secret Garden Resort in China. She walked away with a bronze podium finish.

She is also competing in Shaun White’s Snow League.

Her success went beyond the physical. Much of it came from the mental work she’d been doing, including sessions with sports psychologists and even her childhood idol, Gretchen Bleiler, now a transformational coach and spiritual psychology practitioner.

Shaffrick knew the season would be challenging due to getting in shape, taking hard falls, competing with nerves, and managing a “bum knee.” What she didn’t expect was confronting her own self-doubt, unlearning old patterns, and relearning confidence.

She reframed competition nerves, turning them into fuel. “That day (World Cup) I landed the best run of my year,” she remembers. “It validated everything. Coming back wasn’t just a wild idea. It was shocking and so cool.”

Maddy Shaffrick climbing the slopes at Mount Hood. | Photo by The Snow League/Mike "Dawsy" Dawson

Carving an Olympic path

Now, at 31 years old, Shaffrick’s focus is on the 2026 Olympics. The difference this time? She’s not chasing it for the results and medals. She’s chasing it for herself – that four-year-old who watched Bleiler fly out of the halfpipe and the second grader who wrote about it in her school papers.

“We’ll find out the Olympic team in January and then the opening ceremony is in February. My parents already have their flights and Airbnb booked,” she says with a laugh.

Shaffrick has gone from a child with a massive dream to fierce competitor, from a burnt-out teen to a passionate coach, and is now a new version of herself – an athlete standing on the brink of her Olympic dream. Snowboarding, like sports for many, has been a profound teacher for her. It showed Shaffrick that growth is not linear, joy ebbs and flows, and having fun should always remain essential.

“Seeing what I’m truly capable of has reminded me that we’re all more capable than we realize,” Shaffrick says. “It’s all about stepping into a space of belief, testing boundaries, and pushing myself in ways I never have before.”

If you want to support this Colorado native, follow her journey on Instagram. She’s also seeking sponsors to help support her road to the 2026 Olympics.