LIVIGNO, Italy — United States women’s snowboarder Maddie Mastro comforted a competitor in the mixed zone following women’s halfpipe qualifying Wednesday at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
‘How’d you go?’ the 25-year-old California native asked Canada’s Brooke D’Hondt.
‘Eh,’ D’Hondt responded.
‘How are you feeling?’ Mastro followed.
‘I’m better,’ said D’Hondt, who did not make it into the top 12 to move into Thursday night’s finals. ‘Sad, but.’
It was important for Mastro to do this because, well, she’s been there before. At her first Olympics eight years ago, Mastro made finals but came in 12th of 12 finalists. Four years later, she finished 13th after qualifying and missed finals.
‘I think it’s hard – when you’re that person, and you’re not in the finals, it doesn’t really matter what anyone’s saying around you,’ Mastro told USA TODAY Sports. ‘So it’s harder to convey. I obviously know how they feel and I’ll express that to them and let them know they’re not alone in that space. But it’s definitely not a fun space to be in.’
The memory of watching her competitions’ scores post on the video board and her name sliding down the leaders’ list is something she’ll never forget.
‘That feeling of wanting to transport out of my body and float into another world, far, far away from where I was,’ Mastro said. ‘I’m going to cry thinking about it. And then to be here, and be so content and happy in myself and my performance, and not wanting to float away from my body, was really, really nice.’
Mastro, going third overall and the first of four Americans competing in women’s halfpipe qualifiers, threw down a tasty first run that put her fourth (81.00) entering Run 2. She improved in her second run with an 86.00 to finish third in qualifying behind USA teammate Chloe Kim and Japan’s Sara Shimizu.
Mastro broke out her signature ‘double-crippler’ trick that revolutionized the sport years ago. She also threw a backside 900 on her second run.
‘That was awesome to see,’ said USA teammate Bea Kim, who finished 10th and made finals in her Olympic debut, ‘she’s been working on that.’
The goal wasn’t to improve her score during her second run, Mastro said, but to keep building on her riding – the tricks she wanted to execute and how she wanted to feel at the end of the run.
‘I feel like I accomplished that,’ she said.
Mastro wouldn’t say that the qualifying success gave her extra confidence. The performance washed away her anxiety and qualifying demons, however.
‘I definitely was very, very nervous today. I haven’t always had the best Olympic performances,’ she said.
Those past Olympic performances were hard to digest, Mastro said during a pre-Games news conference. Over the past four years, she worked hard to change her mindset about those missed chances and refocused how she mentally wanted to show up at the Olympics.
‘Less on the finish and place I get, and more about what my snowboarding can look like,’ she explained. ‘That’s been a shift in my mindset that I’m grateful for, and it’s helped my relationship with snowboarding immensely.’
Now Mastro can finally eat. She forced liquids down for the necessary carbohydrates to compete the morning of qualifiers.
‘It was a very peckish breakfast,’ she admitted.
The bolognese in the athlete lounge was on her mind after she was done competing Wednesday.
The 2021 halfpipe world championship silver-medalist planned on spending a good portion laying down after three consecutive days of practice, which means she’ll also have some physical-therapy sessions.
Mastro was the top followed athlete on TikTok throughout the 2022 Games, according to her Team USA bio. The main character of her content, other than her peppy personality, is her pup named Pippy, a a chihuahua-Pomeranian-pitbull mix that has been to more competitions than she can count (because dogs can’t count, Mastro said).
Pippy is with Mastro in the Livigno-cluster athletes’ village.
‘Having her around is great,’ Mastro said. ‘I rescued her with the intent of travelling with her. She makes my days a lot better. She doesn’t care what place I get. She’s still wagging her tail and happy to see me, and I love having Pippy on tour with us.’
Asked if Pippy would be proud of her, Mastro said yes. But then she paused.
‘Pippy doesn’t know,’ she said. ‘Pippy really don’t care, honest to God.’
Before Mastro dropped into the halfpipe, she did her pre-run ritual which involves deep breathing and some substantive twists and back cracks. She enjoys taking in scene and feeling gratitude. It puts her in the moment and centers her.
After her second run, though, Mastro’s instincts took over with two primal chest thumps upon stomping her final jump.
‘I don’t know. I can’t even explain it,’ she said. ‘It just makes you feel powerful.’
Powered all the way to the podium, perhaps.