6 Facts You Didn't Know About Olympic Snowboarder Maddie Mastro

Mastro loves her five rescue dogs, Archie, Beasley, Pippy (who just joined the Mastro family earlier this year), Zody, and Stevie. "They're an island of misfit dogs!" Mastro told NBC Olympics. A big advocate for pet adoption, the snowboarder says rescues are the best dogs a person can have.

Believe it or not, Mastro's favorite workout doesn't involve a snowboard — or even snow, for that matter. "My favorite workout is cross training," she told NBC Olympics. "I love doing different sports, getting outside, and still being able to get a workout."

Mastro played competitive soccer until the age of 16, when she had to decide between pursuing soccer or snowboarding full time. While she chose the latter, she credits soccer for teaching her how to think fast on her feet, and it's one of the many sports that make up her cross-training regimen today. She also surfs, plays tennis, wakesurfs, and has recently gotten into mountain biking.

It's no secret that halfpipe is a pretty dangerous discipline, but that's what made Mastro fall in love with snowboarding in the first place. "Once I get the rush, it's an addiction," Mastro told "Interview Magazine." "You keep craving it and wanting to do more, go bigger, and the sport fuels it. Adrenaline is a big part of what has driven me." Fear, Mastro said, is what pushes her to master those difficult tricks.

With or without an Olympic medal, Mastro has already left her mark on snowboarding. At the 2019 Burton US Open, Mastro became the first woman snowboarder to ever land a double crippler — aka a frontside double backflip with no spin — in competition. Not only that, she beat out Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim for first place, marking her first Open title and career win.

Like fellow Olympian Simone Biles, Mastro has experienced the "twisties" while performing dangerous tricks and flips 50-plus feet in the air. In Mastro's sport, this is referred to as "a blackout zone," which is why the double crippler is rarely executed.

"A lot can go wrong when you're flying through the air, but if you're doing it right, you're always seeing," Mastro explained during an interview with Red Bull. "The more you see, the better. So I'm always telling myself, 'Keep your eyes open. Don't go into a blackout zone. Pay attention. And take the world in.'"

Medals aside, Mastro's favorite thing about snowboarding is the friendships and roles models she's gained along the way, which is something she hopes to pass on to the next generation of women snowboarders. "Building new friendships with all these girls and women around me has been really nice and super inspiring," she told "Interview Magazine." "To have so many progressive women pushing the sport and have fun doing it with them, then being able go home at the end of the day to hang out with them, makes me feel we have a really good thing going."