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Ten years ago, Maddy Schaffrick was a promising skier who found herself in a predicament familiar to many people in their early twenties: living in her parents’ basement and feeling uncertain about her future.
The American, who made his professional debut at age 14, was a rising star in the sport but burned out six years later and announced his retirement.
Looking back on that period, Ms. Shavlik, now 31, described the challenges of being “a kid thrust into the adult world” because of her early success.
“I didn’t really know how to deal with the pressure and expectations of not only being a professional athlete but also trying to be a kid and a growing person,” she explained in a recent interview.
After retiring from racing, Ms. Shavlik took an unexpected path, including working as a snowboard instructor and, most notably, as a plumber.
Now, she aims to compete in her own race first olympics Next month’s Cortina Games in Milan mark a remarkable return to elite sport.
A native of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Ms. Schaffrick joined the U.S. National Snowboard Team at age 14 and competes in World Cup events and X Games around the world.
However, by the age of 20, after suffering several injuries, she decided to end her snow career. After a brief stay in Salt Lake City, she returned home and was asked by her parents to contribute to the family food bill, prompting her to look for work.
She chose physical activity over office work, spending a year as an apprentice in a friend’s plumbing and heating company.
She eventually returned to the mountains as a coach for seven- to nine-year-olds in Steamboat Springs, a position she initially volunteered for to earn free season tickets.
The experience gave her a new appreciation for snowboarding. “It allowed me to reconnect with my passion,” she said, and realize that there are many ways to find joy in the sport.
Ms. Shavlik continues to coach youth before serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Snowboard Team in 2022.
Reintegrating into the sport’s elite level reignited lingering feelings about her career.
“I felt guilty that I had all these opportunities and felt like I wasted them because I wasn’t really accomplishing what I was there to do,” she admits.
Realizing she still had those skills, she decided to chart her own course and get back into competition as a rider. “I needed to do this for my soul,” she declares, “and to heal my younger self.”
Her competitive return came quickly. Ms. Shavlik finished third at the 2024 World Cup in China, her first competition in nearly a decade.
In 2025, she successfully completed her first 900 meters (2.5 laps) in the competition. She admits she still gets jitters before games, but is able to control them better now than she did as a teenager.
“The past three years, when the pressure came down to the last three years of competition, I rarely performed well,” she noted, adding that today she can recognize self-doubt and adjust her thinking.
“For me, the process of competing again over the past year and a half has been recognizing thought patterns, accepting them and doing something different.”
This month, Ms. Shavlik will compete in qualifying tournaments to secure a spot on the U.S. team.
NBC snowboard analyst Todd Richards, a 1998 Winter Olympian, called her “a smart competitor.”
He added: “She’s got a very, very solid foundation. She’s smooth, she makes big runs, she can look at the race and say ‘OK, I need to run better and better.'”
Although Ms. Shavlik dislocated her shoulder while attempting a stunt last December, she is currently recovering without surgery.
“I was really lucky. The doctors were able to put him back on site in about 15 minutes,” she confirmed.
Whatever the future holds, Ms. Shavlik is adamant on this point: She doesn’t want to return to the plumbing industry.
“I learned a lot, including that I never wanted to be a plumber,” she quipped. “But I have a lot of respect for trade jobs. I swear one year as a plumber was harder on my body than seven years of snowboarding.”
