Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to mind Over Mountain with me Cheryl Strade.
Speaker 1: This week my guest is pro snowboarder Matti Shaffrick. She's
Speaker 1: fresh off the US Women's Olympic team, where she competed
Speaker 1: in the halfpipe, and fresh off an amazing comeback. Mattie
Speaker 1: went pro at fourteen, retired by twenty, had a little
Speaker 1: foray as a plumber's assistant, and then became a coach
Speaker 1: before making that amazing comeback. In our conversation, we talk
Speaker 1: about all the high points and low points and the
Speaker 1: healing in between. Let's listen to our conversation.
Speaker 2: Mattie Shaffrick. Welcome to mind Over Mountain.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Cheryl. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You know, I am really excited to talk to you.
Speaker 1: We have tons of stuff to talk about. You went
Speaker 1: pro as a snowboarder at age fourteen, by twenty you
Speaker 1: had retired, and then nine years later you may this
Speaker 1: amazing comeback. And I have to say I'm one of
Speaker 1: the many, many people who were riding and sailing and
Speaker 1: flying along with you through really the glorious comeback you've
Speaker 1: had recently.
Speaker 2: On Instagram, I follow you like so many others.
Speaker 1: You said that this past season was a season for
Speaker 1: the books because of course it included the Olympics in Milan, Cartino,
Speaker 1: where you were a member of the women's snowboard team,
Speaker 1: and also very recently you took second in the women's
Speaker 1: snowboard half fife at the Snowboard World Cup. What was
Speaker 1: this amazing comeback season or these last couple of years
Speaker 1: like for you as a snowboarder.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's it's hard to like put in a few
Speaker 4: short sentences what the last couple of years have men
Speaker 4: and this whole comeback journey I've been on. So last
Speaker 4: winter season was my first season back competing since twenty fifteen,
Speaker 4: And yeah, it was nine years and eight months I'd
Speaker 4: taken off from competition and you know, had tried different careers.
Speaker 4: But like, my main approach in making this comeback, or
Speaker 4: like the reason I wanted to do it was to
Speaker 4: do it differently and to do it authentically and do
Speaker 4: it in a way that was very connected to who
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: And how I want to be in the sewer career.
Speaker 4: And and yeah, it's been very high highs and very
Speaker 4: low lows, like challenges I was expecting. And also challenges
Speaker 4: that I couldn't have predicted.
Speaker 5: That.
Speaker 4: You know, It's funny you get what you ask for,
Speaker 4: like I wanted to. I wanted to see what I
Speaker 4: was truly capable of in this comeback in all ways physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Speaker 4: Like that was one of my main whys for coming back,
Speaker 4: was what I was truly capable of. And I feel
Speaker 4: like I.
Speaker 3: Got pushed to the edge of.
Speaker 4: In all of those realms and was challenged and really
Speaker 4: like I was required to rise to the occasion in
Speaker 4: a lot of different areas, which yeah, has been fun
Speaker 4: and purposeful and also yeah, a wild journey of just
Speaker 4: self exploration and getting to know myself way more and
Speaker 4: believing in myself.
Speaker 1: I also wonder if a piece of that, you know,
Speaker 1: finding your why again, in finding your way back to
Speaker 1: snowboarding goes way back to when you were a child
Speaker 1: and at first falled in love with a sport.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it absolutely has.
Speaker 4: I mean, like you said, I first joined the US
Speaker 4: team and became a professional snowboarder at fourteen. I loved snowboarding,
Speaker 4: you know, like that was my why leading up to that,
Speaker 4: that US Team nomination back then and all of yeah,
Speaker 4: and at fourteen, no one knows who they are at fourteen,
Speaker 4: and my entire all of my teenage years and my
Speaker 4: entire high school experience, I was. I was on the
Speaker 4: road with kids much older than me. I was the
Speaker 4: youngest on the US team by three years at that
Speaker 4: time and remained the youngest for several years. But I
Speaker 4: was trying to figure out who I was during a
Speaker 4: time that, you know, in a.
Speaker 3: Very adult world where.
Speaker 4: I had external expectations and pressures as far as like
Speaker 4: US team expectations, sponsor contracts, agents, and a lot of support.
Speaker 4: That was all so helpful and I needed it or
Speaker 4: someone in that position, it's that's very helpful to have
Speaker 4: all the support and being a teenager trying to also
Speaker 4: just like yeah, figure out who.
Speaker 3: And how I wanted to be in this world.
Speaker 4: It was it was a lot, and I didn't have
Speaker 4: the coping skills yet.
Speaker 1: Really tell me, you know, fourteen, What always amazes me
Speaker 1: about your your experience is that, yeah, as you said,
Speaker 1: who at fourteen knows who they are? The whole situation
Speaker 1: with being fourteen, it's like it's your job not to
Speaker 1: know yet, right, It's your job to go on that
Speaker 1: journey full of like mistakes and victories and all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. It's to be in the spot like the
Speaker 1: way you were to be before that, to be called
Speaker 1: a child prodigy, it's just an immense amount of pressure.
Speaker 2: What was that you know?
Speaker 1: What was that like for you when you were among
Speaker 1: the people who I imagine like these other snowboarders in
Speaker 1: the field, who were like your idols. What was that
Speaker 1: like for you as a child to be among the
Speaker 1: people who are older, making, you know, being their peer
Speaker 1: or their colleague.
Speaker 4: I think there were a lot of like facets to that,
Speaker 4: because the reason I started snowboarding when I was seven
Speaker 4: years old was because I watched Gretchen Bleiler on the
Speaker 4: TV during X Games. I forget what season it was,
Speaker 4: but I remember I was I was six when I
Speaker 4: saw her on TV, and I just remember she was
Speaker 4: in all yellow. I don't think it was a one piece,
Speaker 4: but it was an all yellow outfit, and I remember
Speaker 4: that so clearly, and I remember watching her and her
Speaker 4: run and knowing that's what I wanted to do. I
Speaker 4: was always into sports. I've always been an athletic kid.
Speaker 4: But I saw her compete in X Games in snowboarding,
Speaker 4: half fype and I was like, that's what I want
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 3: Then fast forward.
Speaker 1: But wait, why what was it about seeing her do that?
Speaker 3: That's a good question.
Speaker 4: I would have to like, I know, I'd have to
Speaker 4: tap back into my six year old brain then.
Speaker 3: But maybe it was.
Speaker 4: I don't know, Maybe it was just I think it
Speaker 4: was probably just the energy she was admitting that I
Speaker 4: was feeling, and.
Speaker 2: You're like, I want to be that in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: And all of those women were like having so much
Speaker 4: fun and pushing each other and supporting each other and doing.
Speaker 3: Really cool things. That looks so cool.
Speaker 4: And I, yeah, I was. I was drawn to it.
Speaker 1: I'm imagining you know, when you get such high validation
Speaker 1: and praise, Yeah, being called a child broto d You're
Speaker 1: at fourteen turning pro and you know, joining the team
Speaker 1: that you'd only dreamed of being on.
Speaker 2: It's both positive.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly validating, right, You're like, oh my, all of
Speaker 1: my dreams have come true. Yeah, and it's also strangely
Speaker 1: depleting and diminishing.
Speaker 3: I'm going totally totally.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, it was fast forward eight years from
Speaker 4: watching Gretchen on TV.
Speaker 3: I was on the team.
Speaker 4: With her, and yeah, and being called a child prodigy
Speaker 4: and having a lot of eyes on me, and absolutely
Speaker 4: it was validating, and it was so fun and all
Speaker 4: of my dreams were coming true.
Speaker 3: And how do you you know, uphold that? How do
Speaker 3: you maintain it? And I don't know. I just I
Speaker 3: felt the pressure.
Speaker 4: And though, here's the thing. The first two years I
Speaker 4: was on the team, from age fourteen to sixteen, I
Speaker 4: had a really great time. I did not feel that
Speaker 4: much pressure. The best analogy I can say for it
Speaker 4: is I felt like I was on a wave and
Speaker 4: the wave was pushing me. I was just riding that wave.
Speaker 4: When I was sixteen, I had a really big knee
Speaker 4: injury and a hip injury, just big fall in New
Speaker 4: Zealand and I was going into my junior year of
Speaker 4: high school and I had it was my third knee
Speaker 4: surgery at that time, but it was the biggest one
Speaker 4: I had ever had.
Speaker 2: And third knee surgery by sixteen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, out I know, and and so I'd been Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'd been through injury before, but I had never experienced
Speaker 4: that big of an injury, injury.
Speaker 3: At that level.
Speaker 4: With all the eyes on me yet, or being on
Speaker 4: the US team yet.
Speaker 1: Right right at this level where people actually weren't just
Speaker 1: concerned for your health. They were like, well, we want
Speaker 1: her to perform. We had expectations of her.
Speaker 4: Right, I needed to fulfill contracts, right.
Speaker 3: But Yeah, that injury and.
Speaker 4: I took eleven months off of snow and went back
Speaker 4: to high school to say, at a desk with all
Speaker 4: of my peers that I had grown up with here
Speaker 4: in Steamoat, Colorado. And the last time I had sat
Speaker 4: at a desk, you know, was like seventh grade for
Speaker 4: the entire school year.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I didn't know how to really relate to kids
Speaker 4: my age anymore. All of my friends that I used
Speaker 4: to play soccer with were doing totally different things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they had a different life totally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so that was a hard year just mentally
Speaker 4: and emotionally, you could imagine.
Speaker 2: But yeah, how did you I mean, how was it hard?
Speaker 1: Was it was it hard finding friends again or having
Speaker 1: authentic connections with people?
Speaker 2: What did your peers think of you? Were they like,
Speaker 2: she's the snowboarding star?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean they thought I was cool, but we didn't
Speaker 4: know each other anymore. And the things that they were
Speaker 4: interested in or you know, pursuing, I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 4: know how to connect to that anymore. And then all
Speaker 4: of my you know, friends who had spent the last
Speaker 4: couple of years with they were still traveling the world busy,
Speaker 4: and you know, I.
Speaker 2: Doing the things that you thought you were supposed to
Speaker 2: be doing.
Speaker 4: Right, And I'd say, like, you know, those first two
Speaker 4: years on the US team, I was riding that wave.
Speaker 4: And then after that injury, I fell off that wave.
Speaker 4: And that's when it felt like the awareness of the contracts,
Speaker 4: the pressures, the expectations, that's when all of that came
Speaker 4: in and hit me so hard in a way that
Speaker 4: I didn't I didn't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1: In my own life too, when I've been overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: grief or sorrow or whatever, you know, fill in the
Speaker 1: dark hard word, you do, you do something with it.
Speaker 1: It can be self destructive or not.
Speaker 2: And I mean, what did you do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it means all fairly destructive.
Speaker 4: And I started building like self sabotaging behaviors.
Speaker 5: And.
Speaker 4: You know, it was It wasn't only in you know,
Speaker 4: there's an element to snowboarding. Used to be an element
Speaker 4: to snowboarding that was like there was a very much
Speaker 4: a party culture involved it. That's not really the case anymore,
Speaker 4: especially in the high level competition, which is definitely for
Speaker 4: the best. But I leaned into that side way more
Speaker 4: than I ever had before. But also, you know, speaking
Speaker 4: about those women that I was teammates with, that I
Speaker 4: looked up to so much, I started comparing myself to
Speaker 4: them in a way that was not helpful.
Speaker 1: It never is any like I have never been from
Speaker 1: comparing myself to anyone else. Totally, No, it only it
Speaker 1: only makes you feel less than. What's always crazy too,
Speaker 1: is little do we know they're probably doing the same,
Speaker 1: you know, totally us, And it's it's like it's like
Speaker 1: a shame building machine, that comparison.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the past joy as they say, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it becomes a habit yeah, and a pattern
Speaker 4: that you know, if you go deep enough into it,
Speaker 4: it takes it very intentional work to come out of
Speaker 4: and bring that habit.
Speaker 2: So how did you do that?
Speaker 1: I mean, not just the comparison part, but this era
Speaker 1: you're describing where you got pretty dark, Like, how how.
Speaker 2: Did you find your way out? What did you do?
Speaker 3: I left?
Speaker 4: I Yeah, I retired when I was twenty, and I
Speaker 4: retired so full of anger and resentment and blame.
Speaker 1: And who were you angry at and resentful tour?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've the industry, coaches, sponsors, I was that whole,
Speaker 4: real one that yeah.
Speaker 3: Everything on the outside.
Speaker 4: I was angry at competition itself, Like I felt competition
Speaker 4: had taken this thing. I loved snowboarding, this passion I
Speaker 4: was so connected to and tainted it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you fell out of love with snowboarding, not so
Speaker 1: much for snowboarding itself, but everything that surrounded it exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So when I when I announced my retirement at twenty
Speaker 4: in twenty fifteen, I swore I would never touch another
Speaker 4: snowboard again. I really thought I was never gonna turn back.
Speaker 3: In any way, even recreationally.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm so done.
Speaker 2: What did you do with your snowboards?
Speaker 1: Did you have like a bonfire in the backyard?
Speaker 3: I think I gave a lot of them away.
Speaker 4: Yeah I still have, Like I think I have three
Speaker 4: snowboards from huh that era of my life, And I
Speaker 4: honestly don't know what I did with the rest.
Speaker 1: They were like out in the back for this garage
Speaker 1: or something. I don't really So then you know, I
Speaker 1: understand you. When you retired at twenty, you did what
Speaker 1: many many twenty year olds have done, including my own
Speaker 1: twenty year old right now, retreated to their parents' house. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you grew up writing steam Boat Springs, Colorado.
Speaker 2: So you moved back in with your folks.
Speaker 3: Yep, moved back in into the basement. It was good.
Speaker 3: It was where.
Speaker 4: I needed to be to just you know, they created
Speaker 4: a safe space for me to break down and just
Speaker 4: drop everything and yeah, you know, hit an emotional rock
Speaker 4: bottom and not.
Speaker 3: Know where to go next.
Speaker 1: I mean, the great thing about rock bottom, though, because
Speaker 1: I know this is the next part of your story,
Speaker 1: is like, once you get to the bottom, there's the
Speaker 1: only direction to go is up.
Speaker 2: And it sounds like, I mean, it.
Speaker 1: Might take a while, but and it might look different
Speaker 1: than maybe most of us imagine, but from there we
Speaker 1: do begin to rise.
Speaker 2: So what happened to you next?
Speaker 4: Well, one part of my story that people really love
Speaker 4: this here during the Olympics.
Speaker 2: But I know what's coming.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I moved back into my parents house. I was
Speaker 3: in the basement.
Speaker 4: They gave me a few months to you know, sulk
Speaker 4: around and I don't even know what I was doing,
Speaker 4: but they my dad was finally like, all right, if
Speaker 4: you're going to live here. You need to pay some
Speaker 4: rent or help us buy some food.
Speaker 3: The food you're eating you just need. Yeah, so get
Speaker 3: a job.
Speaker 4: And and I had a family friend in town here
Speaker 4: that owned a plumbing and heating business. I asked him
Speaker 4: one day because I knew, you know, I hadn't gone
Speaker 4: to college. I hadn't the last time I went to
Speaker 4: school was like I just didn't connect with it. I
Speaker 4: had no motivation and so it was not very like
Speaker 4: healthy environment for me.
Speaker 3: And I had no.
Speaker 4: Other like work experience besides snowboarding, and I knew I
Speaker 4: had emotional stuff I needed to work through in my body.
Speaker 4: So I was like, I want to use my hands.
Speaker 4: I want to use my body. I don't want to
Speaker 4: sit behind a desk. I asked my friend Joe, Joe
Speaker 4: the plumber.
Speaker 5: Joe.
Speaker 2: It's like he's even got the name.
Speaker 5: I know.
Speaker 4: When I asked him, I was like, do you have
Speaker 4: any friends in the trade, you know, industry that need help.
Speaker 4: I want to learn something new and I want to
Speaker 4: keep moving, and he goes, yeah, you can start for
Speaker 4: me on Monday. So I became Joe the Plumber's apprentice.
Speaker 1: Made thought that I had, but please tell me that
Speaker 1: your other coworkers were named Earl Bob, and Frank.
Speaker 3: Was Dallas.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's no, that's.
Speaker 1: Not a plumber name. I don't know you think Dallas
Speaker 1: is a plumber name.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: He was. He's a good plumber.
Speaker 2: To be Dallas.
Speaker 1: It's like he's like he's like an actor. He's not
Speaker 1: like Broadway or yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 1: The thing is I love about this is it's it
Speaker 1: is both totally unlikely and also I will say I
Speaker 1: actually think it's it's most of us have that kind
Speaker 1: of story at one point or another in our lives
Speaker 1: where we're like, Okay, I was lost and then I
Speaker 1: just decided to do this like totally out of nowhere
Speaker 1: thing and it helped me be found. And you knew
Speaker 1: instinctually that you had to work with your body, make
Speaker 1: something do, make something happen with your hands, and you
Speaker 1: trusted that girl, and that is like, that is golden
Speaker 1: and that is healing right there. So you were beginning
Speaker 1: even when you asked that question of Joe the plumber,
Speaker 1: So well done, Yeah things.
Speaker 2: How did why are you not a plumber?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: So how'd that plumbing career go? Okay?
Speaker 4: So I I apprenticed for a little over a year,
Speaker 4: learned a lot, and one of the main things I
Speaker 4: learned was that I do not want to split spend
Speaker 4: my life plumbing.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't want to be a plumber. I respect
Speaker 3: the trade so much.
Speaker 4: And I will say too that one year of plumbing
Speaker 4: was harder on my body than seven years of professional sommarty.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, like mad respect.
Speaker 2: Are you serious?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm serious, because you're like on your knees under
Speaker 4: a sing or cabinet right, or you're in a crawl
Speaker 4: space in some contorted position, or you're like fun scaffolding
Speaker 4: hoping of holding a pipe over your head.
Speaker 3: It was so hard on my joints.
Speaker 1: I imagine early twenties, Like imagine you're like some old guy,
Speaker 1: yeah or Dallas or whatever. Also, you have to wear
Speaker 1: really baggy pants so they fall down totally.
Speaker 3: I'm about to throw all your belts.
Speaker 1: I hope, I hope somebody saw your butt track at
Speaker 1: some point, Maddie, I'm sure. I come on, well, but
Speaker 1: you were just an apprentice, so like maybe you didn't
Speaker 1: reach the full plumber of you know, wardrobe malfunction level.
Speaker 3: But I'm true.
Speaker 1: Okay, but my burning question that I have for you
Speaker 1: about your your short career, but short but informative career
Speaker 1: and physically challenging career and plumbing is I know you're
Speaker 1: you're not interested in being a plumber. Now do you
Speaker 1: do your own home repairs? Like if things get moving
Speaker 1: a little slow, like you know how to fix it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I do.
Speaker 3: I've done like the little like external repairs if it's
Speaker 3: in a wall. I called somebody.
Speaker 5: I called Joe.
Speaker 2: Joe, you guys are still passed.
Speaker 1: I bet yeah, Okay, what did What did Joe think
Speaker 1: of you when you're like, you know, I mean going
Speaker 1: to the Olympics and stuff. I bet that I met
Speaker 1: The Plumbers Association of America is very proud of you.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 3: He has been so supportive.
Speaker 4: And so he has three kids that are all younger
Speaker 4: than me, and uh huh, I lived with them my
Speaker 4: junior year of high school when I was back during
Speaker 4: that time. So yeah, they I mean those kids at
Speaker 4: that time too. The oldest was eight and the youngest
Speaker 4: was maybe two. And now this is twenty three.
Speaker 1: Have you have you taught them snow snowboarding or taken
Speaker 1: them out on the snow at all.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean looking back when I was in high school,
Speaker 4: when they were young.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, they were all they're all rippers.
Speaker 6: They all chose skiing now, but whatever, I'm not gonna
Speaker 6: judge them. But yeah, they've all been so proud and
Speaker 6: it's been funny too because.
Speaker 3: Joe I was uh, let's just I wasn't the best
Speaker 3: plumber either.
Speaker 2: I wasn't wade for it.
Speaker 1: He's not.
Speaker 3: Let me forget that where he goes.
Speaker 4: Well, you're getting a lot of attention for that time plumbing,
Speaker 4: but they don't know how bad you were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, like that word prodigy only applies an
Speaker 1: area of your life, not too exactly, only snowboarding, not
Speaker 1: not plumbing.
Speaker 2: I'm glad to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we set the record straight here on mind
Speaker 1: Over Mountain. Yeadi Chaprack is not a prodigious plumber.
Speaker 3: No I'm not.
Speaker 1: Don't call me, don't call called Joe so Ya. But
Speaker 1: so then you have your moment of truth, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: at twenty you're like, I'm done with snowboarding. A few
Speaker 1: years later you're like, I'm done with plumbing. What happened next?
Speaker 1: How did you find your way back to snowboarding.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you know, it's funny and makes sense when
Speaker 5: I declared at twenty years old, I was never going
Speaker 5: to snowboard again.
Speaker 4: It didn't last that long because I came home to
Speaker 4: Steamboat and spent like basically the rest of the summer
Speaker 4: in Steamboat, or I had some extra time in Salt
Speaker 4: Lake City. But then I uh started plumbing, and we're
Speaker 4: approaching the ski season again, and I had some friends
Speaker 4: coming back home, and everyone I knew in Steamboat was
Speaker 4: getting season passes for the report, right, And so I
Speaker 4: was like, all right, I'm going to be so bored.
Speaker 3: If I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm if all I'm doing is plumbing, sleeping, like, get
Speaker 4: an activity. There's not a lot to do in Steamboat
Speaker 4: in the winter besides skier, snowboard or some sort of
Speaker 4: winter activity.
Speaker 3: So I reached out to.
Speaker 4: A friend of mine who was directing the snowboard program,
Speaker 4: the youth snowboard program here in Steamboat for Steamboat Springs
Speaker 4: Winter Sports Club, and asked her if she had any
Speaker 4: volunteer positions available where I could get a free season pass.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, and so yeah.
Speaker 4: That that twenty sixteen summer or winter, I guess it's
Speaker 4: twenty fifteen twenty sixteen winter, I volunteered with a group
Speaker 4: of like seven to nine year olds and it was
Speaker 4: only seven hours a week.
Speaker 3: It was one day a week after.
Speaker 4: My plumbing and then on Saturdays, and I was teaching
Speaker 4: this group of kids how to snowboard for the first
Speaker 4: time ever, just how to turn and how to strap
Speaker 4: on their snowboard day one, and.
Speaker 1: Which is the same age you were. I just want
Speaker 1: to point out that you said I want to do
Speaker 1: that totally. It's a really exastaing return. And just for
Speaker 1: the record, I want to say, if if I went
Speaker 1: to the mountain, I would need to be in that
Speaker 1: group with the seven to nine year olds. I would
Speaker 1: probably never graduate off of whatever level they were at.
Speaker 4: You would, you would, And at a surtain age we
Speaker 4: recommend butt pads and risk guards.
Speaker 1: Okay, I would need just like maybe full body like
Speaker 1: sort of bubble wrap.
Speaker 2: I mean, that is the thing I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: About this because I think that you know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about is when you teach absolute beginners, whether they're
Speaker 1: seven and nine or fifty, you know, what you yourself
Speaker 1: are doing is in some ways returning to those essentials
Speaker 1: and those like those first steps and those first times
Speaker 1: that you're like, oh my gosh, Like I thought I
Speaker 1: couldn't do this thing, and then I did it, and wow,
Speaker 1: that was thrilling. Am I just projecting this like with
Speaker 1: some of with some of this resonating with you when
Speaker 1: you were teaching the kids, were you remembering why you
Speaker 1: loved snowboarding again?
Speaker 3: I mean, that was it. You just named it perfectly.
Speaker 4: That's exactly what happened, and it I mean, it brought
Speaker 4: me back to the basics in a way that I
Speaker 4: had I hadn't thought about how to turn.
Speaker 3: My snowboard in years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so it felt completely different than what I
Speaker 4: was doing in competition and like training and learning tricks
Speaker 4: and learning how to fall and.
Speaker 3: Get back up and all that.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was learning how to fall and.
Speaker 4: Get back up and try to explain that to the
Speaker 4: kids too.
Speaker 3: But it was so.
Speaker 4: It reframed snowboarding for me in a way that I
Speaker 4: really needed, and it was it had nothing to do
Speaker 4: with competition. And I was watching in real time those
Speaker 4: kids figure out their love for snowboarding and their passion
Speaker 4: and can and discover it for the first time ever.
Speaker 3: And it was so fun.
Speaker 4: Wow, and it literally probably it was maybe in the
Speaker 4: first two weeks that I could feel within myself like
Speaker 4: this is healing me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, the body is such a great teacher,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 1: You're out there explaining I got chills when you just
Speaker 1: said what you said, which is to teach people how
Speaker 1: to fall down and get back up, you know. And
Speaker 1: of course when when you're doing that with your body,
Speaker 1: you end up doing that inside yourself as well. It
Speaker 1: ends up being you know, that that healing act, and
Speaker 1: especially sharing that with others because of course if you're
Speaker 1: telling somebody else listen, you're gonna follow. It might hurt,
Speaker 1: but no worries. You can get right back up and
Speaker 1: go again and try again, always, always, always like you
Speaker 1: can't help it, but here that yourself.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1: What about coaching, I mean you you were coaching the
Speaker 1: little kids and instructing really more, I guess.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then you know, did you that drew you back in
Speaker 1: in a deeper level? I understand you continued, Then you
Speaker 1: got hired to actually be a.
Speaker 2: Coach, yeah, at the club.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So so that first season back in Steamboat, I was
Speaker 4: plumbing and doing the volunteer position with the young kids
Speaker 4: and then got to a place with plumbing where I
Speaker 4: needed I didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Do it anymore.
Speaker 3: I quit that and going into that following season, I yeah.
Speaker 4: I went to the director, my friend Tori, and was like,
Speaker 4: I want to do this full time. Is there a
Speaker 4: position for it? And I became head coach of what
Speaker 4: was called the Junior and Senior teams at Sema Springs
Speaker 4: Winner Sports Club, which was basically a group of nine
Speaker 4: to nineteen year olds that competed in all the different
Speaker 4: disciplines of snowboarding, so you know giant Solomon, slalom, border cross,
Speaker 4: slope style, halfpipe, rail jams, all the different disciplines. We
Speaker 4: just had a big group of kids and I was
Speaker 4: the head coach of that that had a couple of
Speaker 4: coaches under me that we work together to like, yeah,
Speaker 4: bring these kids to competition.
Speaker 3: And help them. You know, when they're younger, you.
Speaker 4: Help them discover well, you want to have them try
Speaker 4: everything and have them support them in doing everything. And
Speaker 4: then as they were getting older and you know those sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
Speaker 4: nineteen year olds, we were it was very specialized training
Speaker 4: in whatever discipline they were specializing in.
Speaker 2: What did you learn about like being a good coach.
Speaker 1: I mean, you had always been coached, but what what
Speaker 1: was it like for you to be in that other position.
Speaker 4: It was challenging in a whole new way. And what
Speaker 4: was interesting was once I got named to that position,
Speaker 4: I was really excited and I knew I had things
Speaker 4: to share with the athletes. But then going back to
Speaker 4: my first competitions as a coach, even though they were
Speaker 4: like small regional events in Colorado, it was a weird
Speaker 4: I still had lingering resentment for competition.
Speaker 1: You mean, going back literally to places that where you
Speaker 1: had competed. Yeah, so it's almost like you, I mean
Speaker 1: you had memories like, well, okay, four years ago, I
Speaker 1: was here and I did this on this mountain.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and even just I mean it was different mountains sometimes,
Speaker 4: but just bringing kids into the world of competition when
Speaker 4: I still blamed competition for taking away my love of
Speaker 4: the sport, which in the last twelve months or whatever,
Speaker 4: I had just regained. I just figured out how to
Speaker 4: love snowboarding again and connect to it in.
Speaker 3: A whole new way.
Speaker 4: And then I was bringing kids into the world that
Speaker 4: I believed took that love away from me.
Speaker 1: How did you reconcile those those mixed feelings.
Speaker 4: It is challenging. And what ended up happening was I
Speaker 4: learned or I came to believe that there is no
Speaker 4: one way an athlete connects to their sport. There is
Speaker 4: no one avenue and it is honestly, the coaches are
Speaker 4: The coaches are the last people that should tell an
Speaker 4: athlete how they connect to their sport. It's up to
Speaker 4: a coach to help an athlete discover how they themselves
Speaker 4: connect to their sport and then support them in creating
Speaker 4: environments that like pave that path and give them opportunities
Speaker 4: to like stay connected to their that avenue that they need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think another way of thinking about that in
Speaker 1: a broader scope. I think even outside of snowboarding or
Speaker 1: skiing or the sports world at all, it's.
Speaker 2: Like, you know, you kind of can't.
Speaker 1: You know one thing I've written a sercrets you can't
Speaker 1: fake the core like you cannot you cannot fake what's
Speaker 1: like truly within you. And of course for you to
Speaker 1: be like a pro athlete, you have to have your
Speaker 1: own We began our conversation saying like you had to
Speaker 1: have your why, right, That's how you come back was about,
Speaker 1: and in some ways also what your retirement was about
Speaker 1: is that, like you lost your why.
Speaker 2: You're like, what am I doing here?
Speaker 1: I'm hurting, I'm injuring myself, I'm resentful, I'm stressed out
Speaker 1: about other people outshining me or feeling competitive with them.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that that's such a core
Speaker 1: and essential truth of the human experience, right. We always
Speaker 1: have to know why we're doing something, especially when it
Speaker 1: demands so much from us to do exactly.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I couldn't say it better. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: being a coach healed me in so many ways, and.
Speaker 5: It my why as a coach became helping others.
Speaker 4: Find their why and learning there is no wrong why
Speaker 4: right for somebody, and you know, as long as it's
Speaker 4: like healthy and doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well have healthy why.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a healthy why. But that was really magical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like I want to continue talking to
Speaker 1: you about your journey, but like I can't help at
Speaker 1: this juncture and our conversation where we're talking about whys
Speaker 1: and helping other people find their why. I actually have
Speaker 1: a dear Sugar letter that I want you to help
Speaker 1: me answer it.
Speaker 2: That's kind of adjacent to this.
Speaker 1: So can we just pause and I'll read it to you,
Speaker 1: and we'll give this this pers of advice, and then
Speaker 1: we're going to go back to a great comeback of
Speaker 1: Mattie Shaffrick.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll read it to you.
Speaker 1: Okay, deer, Sugar, I'm twenty four and I still have
Speaker 1: no idea what I want to do with my life.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't I have figured that out by now.
Speaker 1: I graduated college nearly two years ago, and after trying
Speaker 1: in a bit with friends, I moved back in with
Speaker 1: my parents and got a job at a high end
Speaker 1: thrift store. I still live with my parents, and that's
Speaker 1: not the problem. We like living together, and rent in
Speaker 1: our city is insanely expensive. The problem is I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm just drifting along, not really going in any direction.
Speaker 1: My job is fine and even fun at times, but
Speaker 1: it's not where I see myself in five years. My
Speaker 1: issue is when I think about five years from now,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what I'll be doing because I don't
Speaker 1: know what I want to do. This seems like such
Speaker 1: a whiny letter, I know, But will you please give
Speaker 1: me some advice, Sugar? How do I create a meaningful life?
Speaker 1: How do I find that thing inside of me that
Speaker 1: will make me feel passionate about a particular career path.
Speaker 1: I envy my friends who already know what they want
Speaker 1: to do, but so far I just don't have that.
Speaker 1: How do people like me find their life's purpose?
Speaker 2: Thanks? Signed Drifter? Okay, do you see why?
Speaker 1: Like it is kind of adjacent this thing of all
Speaker 1: totally this person she's really asking like, what's my why
Speaker 1: have I'm lost in drifting totally?
Speaker 4: And I, yeah, I feel like that's so common.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: First, I want to say to Drifter, and I think
Speaker 1: Maddie's going to agree with me. Twenty four is very young. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so first of all, let's dispense with that self shame,
Speaker 1: like shouldn't I have figured it out by now? And
Speaker 1: I want to say to you, Drifter, like, at every
Speaker 1: age you know, people say shouldn't I already fill in
Speaker 1: the blank? And the answer is always know, because of
Speaker 1: course we evolve and grow all the time, and you know,
Speaker 1: a sense of seeking in bewilderment is almost always part
Speaker 1: of our lives in different ways over all of our lives.
Speaker 2: So stop lambasting yourself for.
Speaker 1: Not figuring it out by now. You're only twenty four.
Speaker 1: Do you back me up on that.
Speaker 4: Maddie, absolutely, one hundred percent. Yeah, I think it's it's
Speaker 4: hard when, Yeah, our society kind of creates an expectation
Speaker 4: that you should know what you want to do with
Speaker 4: your life, especially yeah, at twenty four or at like
Speaker 4: any age.
Speaker 3: There are so many.
Speaker 4: People I feel like that are also doing things that
Speaker 4: they don't connect with because they like jumped into something
Speaker 4: before they yeah they wanted or you know, I know
Speaker 4: it's hard than there's so many different circumstances and that
Speaker 4: people deal with.
Speaker 3: But yeah, be kind to yourself with that one.
Speaker 4: Drifter, I think you're I'm in that boat with you
Speaker 4: sometimes too.
Speaker 1: Still, yeah, you know, I mean, I think that you
Speaker 1: make a really good point because it's actually for me,
Speaker 1: I feel like sort of hidden beneath the way that
Speaker 1: drifter thinks about her life. And it is a woman
Speaker 1: who wrote I always ask their pronouns and she said,
Speaker 1: you see her. So I think that what's really interesting
Speaker 1: is that the fact that you're even asking about how
Speaker 1: to find your sense of purpose and meaning tells me
Speaker 1: that like, you aren't just you aren't just drifting, you know,
Speaker 1: because just like you said, Maddie, like a lot of people,
Speaker 1: they just followed the path. They graduate high school, they
Speaker 1: graduate college, they get the job that's quote unquote in
Speaker 1: their field, and they don't have that sense of purpose
Speaker 1: and meaning. And so Drifter, what you're doing is like
Speaker 1: you're not just leaping in the direction of like whatever
Speaker 1: your family or society tells you you should do. You're
Speaker 1: actually searching your soul and saying, what do I want?
Speaker 1: And you know, my first piece of advice it's kind
Speaker 1: of adjacent to to something you said earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: like going back out there teaching these little kids who
Speaker 1: were you know, the same agency when you fell in
Speaker 1: love with snowboard snowboarding, like how to how to snowboard.
Speaker 1: It's like you're going back into this thing you love
Speaker 1: at the at the juncture that you most loved it,
Speaker 1: which is that when you first were like excited about it.
Speaker 1: And so my first bit of a Bysdrifter is like,
Speaker 1: you know, make a list right now, get out a
Speaker 1: piece of paper. I'm a huge fanatic for list when
Speaker 1: it comes to solving all of your life's problems. I
Speaker 1: can't help it. I'm a virgo.
Speaker 2: I like to live things. But all the things you
Speaker 2: just love to do.
Speaker 1: It can be everything from like you know, watching seventeen
Speaker 1: episodes of murder she wrote and wrote, or you know
Speaker 1: like reading books or you know whatever it is, you know,
Speaker 1: going running, like all the things you love to do,
Speaker 1: and then think about ways that you could find deeper
Speaker 1: meaning maybe in work that is somehow connected to those things,
Speaker 1: Like just start to think about you know, begin with
Speaker 1: that place of what do I like and love?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I like that?
Speaker 4: And also what comes to mind for me is like
Speaker 4: she mentioned, she when she envisions five years from now,
Speaker 4: she doesn't know what she wants to do.
Speaker 3: What's been helpful for me?
Speaker 4: And I can get into this later, but I guess
Speaker 4: my advice would be when you envision yourself in five years,
Speaker 4: maybe you don't envision what you want to do or
Speaker 4: what you're doing, but who.
Speaker 3: You want to be and how you want to be.
Speaker 7: And what what's.
Speaker 3: What values do you want to live by?
Speaker 4: And like what strength do you want to have that
Speaker 4: that push you? And then yeah, and then maybe with
Speaker 4: that list of of things that you love that you
Speaker 4: connect with, like what in that what in that list
Speaker 4: support the vision of who you want to be and
Speaker 4: how you want to be in this world.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Okay, Mattie, I think we just solved an incredible human
Speaker 1: struggle just right here, very concisely, because it is what
Speaker 1: do you love and who do you want to be?
Speaker 1: You put those two together, that is that is a
Speaker 1: meaningful life.
Speaker 2: That is a meaningful life.
Speaker 1: You know what what qualities do you want to you know,
Speaker 1: live out in your life? For me, like, it's kindness,
Speaker 1: it's generosity, it's it's love, you know, And then how
Speaker 1: you know, how can I be a conduit for that?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: Almost always the answer is like by by you know,
Speaker 1: if you gravit, if you if you do the things
Speaker 1: you love, you end up being pretty good at it,
Speaker 1: right you usually, I mean there's a reason you weren't
Speaker 1: a good plumber and you're a really good snowboarder exactly.
Speaker 1: So like trust that drifter and we wish you good luck.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, you will find your way. You're going to
Speaker 3: be asking yeaheah, You're.
Speaker 1: Going to drift you down that river into a beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful life.
Speaker 2: I know that for sure.
Speaker 1: So back to your beautiful life, miss Maddie.
Speaker 2: We left off you were you were coaching, and you also.
Speaker 1: Then went on to coach the US Ski and Snowboard team.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 1: You you advanced as a coach, if you will, And
Speaker 1: I think it was there that you really came to
Speaker 1: that decision to come back to snowboarding yourself. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us about that, like brought that on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, So, Yeah I did.
Speaker 4: I coached at the club level for seven years and
Speaker 4: the last two of those seven years I was directing
Speaker 4: the snowboard program and that role led me to US
Speaker 4: team coach job opening and I I started, I got
Speaker 4: back on the road and I started being in that
Speaker 4: like World Cup circuit, international competitions again for the first
Speaker 4: time since I.
Speaker 3: Was competing in them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I think just being back in that environment, It's
Speaker 4: funny because the seven years I was coaching at the
Speaker 4: club level two I did, I learned so much about myself.
Speaker 3: I really I healed so much of my.
Speaker 4: You know, the the negative experiences or beliefs I had
Speaker 4: around snowboarding. I really felt like all of that had healed.
Speaker 4: And then I went back into that environment and was like.
Speaker 3: Instantly kind of realized. I was like, oh, there's I
Speaker 3: still felt.
Speaker 4: What onearthed in me was regret.
Speaker 2: Regret, What.
Speaker 4: About my time in that in that industry and at
Speaker 4: that place.
Speaker 1: You mean regret that you had competed at that level
Speaker 1: at such a young age when you weren't really emotionally
Speaker 1: ready for it, or regret that you had done that
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 3: It was it was regret in how I had done it.
Speaker 3: I felt as though I didn't do it well.
Speaker 4: I felt as though I had wasted all of my opportunities.
Speaker 3: I had wasted my talent.
Speaker 4: I did not regret being in that position and being
Speaker 4: in that environment, but I regretted, Yeah, how I went
Speaker 4: through it. I regretted those like last few years when
Speaker 4: things were dark and when I yeah, when I looked
Speaker 4: to partying, or when I compared myself to everyone else,
Speaker 4: or when I like talked so negatively to myself and
Speaker 4: I did not believe in myself at all.
Speaker 3: Those last few years of competition.
Speaker 4: I yeah, I just straight up I didn't believe in myself,
Speaker 4: and I regretted.
Speaker 3: I regretted giving up on myself.
Speaker 1: So part of this move, this decision to come back,
Speaker 1: was it born of this idea that you could do
Speaker 1: it differently this time because you were healed exactly?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw there could be a possibility to do
Speaker 4: it differently and to do it in a way where
Speaker 4: I believed in myself. And that's where what I mentioned
Speaker 4: at the beginning of our conversation with me wanting to
Speaker 4: see what I was truly capable of. That are you
Speaker 4: capable of anything I want? Is what I've learned. If
Speaker 4: I really want it, if I really if I have
Speaker 4: that energy going that way, if I want.
Speaker 3: It, I can make it happen.
Speaker 4: And it is not going to be easy, but I
Speaker 4: can make it through hard times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can push myself.
Speaker 4: And I because I believe in myself for the first time,
Speaker 4: and that that has been my greatest gift of all
Speaker 4: of this. Like, yes, going to the Olympics was awesome
Speaker 4: and that was a dream come true. And what has
Speaker 4: felt like more of an achievement is learning how to
Speaker 4: believe in myself over and over again. And I'm re
Speaker 4: wiring my brain and rewriting. You know.
Speaker 3: We talked about like the patterns and like.
Speaker 1: You know, the yeah, just stories that tell ourselves like
Speaker 1: who we're out there feeling afraid and ashamed and less
Speaker 1: than and and and small inside telling yourself here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's that you're you're repeating and then you become
Speaker 1: that way right and true too.
Speaker 2: When you what do you what do you tell yourself?
Speaker 1: I mean, do you actually have like a mantra or
Speaker 1: certain self talk that you use.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're competing.
Speaker 4: It changes almost competition of competition it changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I've been grateful for the awareness within myself and
Speaker 4: the presence it's taken to like listen in each in
Speaker 4: each new competition, each new week, each new training day
Speaker 4: to really figure out what I need to tell myself
Speaker 4: that day that's going to resonate and help me.
Speaker 1: And what about comparison? I mean, you you said that
Speaker 1: that was a big problem for you before, is that
Speaker 1: you would look at other people and be feel less
Speaker 1: then because they were achieving something you wanted. How do
Speaker 1: you view your your competitors now?
Speaker 4: Well, I'll say that like none of it has gone
Speaker 4: away completely because I mean I created some deep trenches
Speaker 4: for those thought patterns.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it, real talk.
Speaker 2: I'm not totally healed, Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: But hey, this is the thing A mind never mand me.
Speaker 1: Like, you don't get to the mountaintop, you know at
Speaker 1: the beginning, You've got to keep walking.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a life. It's a lifelong.
Speaker 4: Journey exactly, exactly, And so yeah, the comparison thing is
Speaker 4: still real for me. The negative self talk is still
Speaker 4: real for me, Like it comes up and sometimes it's
Speaker 4: it feels like my default to go there first. But
Speaker 4: what's been different is now I can recognize it, yeah,
Speaker 4: and I hear it, and I see it for what
Speaker 4: it is, and I know even if it feels really
Speaker 4: true or I know it's not helpful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or it's just like a member of what I
Speaker 1: do in writing, you know, fear and anxiety is always
Speaker 1: a part of writing for me and for most writers.
Speaker 1: What I've come to realize is like, oh, okay, you're
Speaker 1: just like one of the voices at the table, and
Speaker 1: you're you're the one who's not going to be my ruler,
Speaker 1: Like I'm going to say thank you for your input,
Speaker 1: now sit down and shut.
Speaker 2: Up, and I'm going to get to work.
Speaker 1: And I think that what you're describing kind of can
Speaker 1: be similar where you're never maybe ever going to purge
Speaker 1: that sense of like that comparison that can be really depleting,
Speaker 1: but you're not going to let.
Speaker 2: It devour you anymore.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 1: In the beginning of our conversation you wrote, I cited
Speaker 1: your your Instagram posts this season for the books. Tell
Speaker 1: me about like what, you know, what has that been like?
Speaker 1: Now out there back at it at a really high
Speaker 1: level and you know, really having some success too. Are
Speaker 1: you feeling you know, deep in your love and snowboarding
Speaker 1: and where you know what is?
Speaker 2: Tell us more about this season you've had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I I'll.
Speaker 7: Say that I.
Speaker 4: Last season, my first season back in competition, definitely felt
Speaker 4: like more of the mental like I was. You know,
Speaker 4: we're talking about those negative like default thought patterns. Last
Speaker 4: year was way more consumed by that and trying to
Speaker 4: change them.
Speaker 3: This year was, you know, the Olympic year.
Speaker 4: We had qualification events starting in December that led up
Speaker 4: to the Olympics in February. My goal going into that
Speaker 4: the whole year was just to be present through all
Speaker 4: of it, because I knew if I was present, I'd
Speaker 4: be able to know what I needed in each moment
Speaker 4: in order to perform, and also I to choose what
Speaker 4: I needed to feel the way I wanted to feel
Speaker 4: while doing it.
Speaker 2: What do you want to feel while doing it?
Speaker 4: Freedom and joy and joy in something like that too?
Speaker 4: Is I've recognized is really a choice. Some days are
Speaker 4: it's easier to choose joy than others. But yeah, when
Speaker 4: it's your career and it's a grind or like the
Speaker 4: weather's terrible and you're tired.
Speaker 3: To really like enjoy.
Speaker 4: The process and where you're at in the moment, it's
Speaker 4: is a choice. And yeah, I'm being able to like
Speaker 4: give yourself what you need that those days, which is
Speaker 4: sometimes calling it.
Speaker 1: Like it looks like so much fun even though I
Speaker 1: never ever want to do the halfpipe on a snowboard, Okay,
Speaker 1: it looks it looks so fun. You know, it's I
Speaker 1: you know, you say freedom and joy and it looks
Speaker 1: like that, and of course I know there's so much
Speaker 1: more happening inside your body. It's it's hard, it's technical,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's a lot of things. But I
Speaker 1: love that you're saying these words freedom and joy because
Speaker 1: that is how it feels to do that.
Speaker 4: Do you sometimes but it's what it's like really going well, yeah,
Speaker 4: and like.
Speaker 3: When I feel those things, that's when I ride my best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which I think it's probably about like relaxation, right,
Speaker 1: like you're actually in your body and Jack lacks and
Speaker 1: you know what you.
Speaker 4: Can do and you do it, yes, exactly. Yeah, you
Speaker 4: trust yourself, you trust the process and the movement and everything. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and it's so fun and like that's the feeling I crave.
Speaker 4: And I don't know the exact percent of time that
Speaker 4: I actually feel.
Speaker 3: That, but it's not. Yeah, it's like maybe thirty percent.
Speaker 1: If you had to say the absolute high point of
Speaker 1: your career as a pro snowboarder so far, what would
Speaker 1: it be.
Speaker 4: That's a really good question. I don't know if I
Speaker 4: have that yet. And I'll say.
Speaker 3: Last year.
Speaker 4: Last year, my first World Cup back in almost ten years,
Speaker 4: I got third place and I didn't was not I
Speaker 4: was not expecting that. My goal for that event was
Speaker 4: to just land a run because I, you know, my
Speaker 4: last few years of competition in the past, I didn't
Speaker 4: know how to. I was rarely landing runs because I
Speaker 4: was so like disassociated and just yeah checked out and
Speaker 4: it affected my performance. And so I really just wanted
Speaker 4: to land a run. And I landed a run in
Speaker 4: qualifiers and in finals ended up podiuming and.
Speaker 3: That result was really cool.
Speaker 4: But like that was the hardest competition honestly, besides the Olympics,
Speaker 4: as far as what I felt inside of myself as
Speaker 4: far as nerves and self doubt and all those yeah,
Speaker 4: like negative habits of the past came up and were
Speaker 4: right on the surface, and I chose something different. Wow,
Speaker 4: that's beautiful, and that feels like my high point so far.
Speaker 2: What's next for you?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not done.
Speaker 4: I feel I have learned far too much about myself
Speaker 4: in the last two years, and especially in the last
Speaker 4: month of the Olympics and everything, and reflecting on my
Speaker 4: Olympic experience, I've learned way too much to stop now,
Speaker 4: and I feel like too the hard work is like
Speaker 4: just click starting to click for me, right, I like
Speaker 4: laughed after the Olympics.
Speaker 3: I was like, it's funny.
Speaker 4: I thought I was going to be peaking in a
Speaker 4: year and a half after taking ten years off.
Speaker 3: That's funny. But I think I could just skip up to.
Speaker 4: The top my ability level at that time with that
Speaker 4: amount of time.
Speaker 3: So I want to keep going.
Speaker 4: I do probably need another knee surgery, just because you know,
Speaker 4: my last one was in twenty twelve, but that was
Speaker 4: my fifth knee surgery all before I was eighteen, So
Speaker 4: now my knee is just old. I'm not old. I'm
Speaker 4: turning thirty two in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: I know, Maddie, you have the same birthday as my son.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, you're exactly ten years older than my son Carver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a great day.
Speaker 5: I know.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: Torus is unite, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, let's go. We're stubborn.
Speaker 2: So there's some What's in your future is some more PT.
Speaker 8: So if you got some good PT some time, some
Speaker 8: good Yeah, I mean I actually I love writing also
Speaker 8: so and it really helps me.
Speaker 4: It's a good outlet for me. So then reconnect to
Speaker 4: that this summer and.
Speaker 3: Go from there.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I've done, and I feel like I'm just
Speaker 4: at the beginning.
Speaker 2: You've only just begun.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: It has been such a fun pleasure to talk to you, Maddie.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking the time to be
Speaker 1: on the show. Yeah, thank you, Cheryl. This is awesome.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: If you would like to send me a letter seeking advice,
Speaker 1: please do send it to Dear Dearsugar at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: And don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Happy Trails and I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Min Over Mountain with Cheryl Strait is an iHeart Women's
Speaker 1: Sports production produced by Britney Brown and Rodney Brown of
Speaker 1: Barbara Jean Productions. Supervising producer is Kaylin West at REALM.
Speaker 1: Associate producer Amaya Brathwaite. Our executive producers are Molly Barton,
Speaker 1: Jerry Carrita, Grace Views and Jesse Katz. Our theme song
Speaker 1: is composed by Gramoscope Music. Don't forget to raise, review
Speaker 1: and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Happy Trails and
Speaker 1: I'll
Speaker 2: See you next week.