How Olympic Snowboarder Maddie Mastro Does Breakfast
Not all Olympians' diets are the same. There are the Michael Phelpses of the Olympic world who need to cram in 12,000 calories a day, but snowboarders don’t require the same insane eating. Take Maddie Mastro, who’s just your average teenage professional snowboarder about to represent the United States at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. “Two weeks ago I was officially named, and everyone found out I was going to the Olympics,” Mastro told me. “It was a pretty incredible feeling, it was quite nice because it was a weight off of my shoulders. It’s quite hard and stressful qualifying. Just to get to an end point was a pretty nice feeling. It was almost like breathing again.” I talked to the California native about her morning routine and how she’s fueling for gold.
Extra Crispy: Is diet important for a professional snowboarder?
Maddie Mastro: It’s quite a big, popular thing now to think about what you’re putting in your body as we’ve gotten older, especially me like other athletes. Diet is a big thing but it’s not as strict as other sports. It’s whatever your body needs kind of a diet. All of us have a dietician who helps out and helps us figure out what our body’s lacking or what our body needs. That’s really helpful, especially for me, growing up not really having good knowledge of that.
What’s a typical breakfast like for you?
Breakfast for me depending on whether I’m training or competing is typically always pretty light. If I’m competing, it’s a bowl of oatmeal—not even—and I typically bring BODYARMOR with me after breakfast to help me get through the day since I’ve got all the nerves and butterflies. If I’m just training, it’s an egg sandwich or just something with eggs in it. Poached eggs, fried eggs, anything eggs. I typically go all the way until 2 p.m.
What happens at 2 p.m.?
Lunch is pretty simple, a pretty simple turkey sandwich or salad or whatever I’m feeling. Dinner tends to be something with iron in it because I’m a little iron deficient.
What’s the BODYARMOR all about?
I really like the Sportwater because it’s the best water I’ve ever had. It tastes so good, it’s the smoothest water I’ve ever drank. It’s rich in electrolytes as well, so that’s really helpful when I’m snowboarding in the mountains with the altitude. You get pretty tired up there, so the Sportwater is a good option for me to hydrate.
How do you eat when you’re up on a mountain? Do you have to go down to the bottom to get food?
For me, I bring nuts and trail mix and a lot of granola bars and fruit on the mountain so I have a lot of snacks throughout the day and I just bring them up in a backpack. Typically for lunch you do have to leave the mountain and either go home or go to a restaurant to get [food].
Do you do other workouts outside of snowboarding?
I go to the gym a lot and have a certain set of workouts that I do now. Lately since it’s in-season work outs, it’s been a lot of body recovery things and mobility and just trying to keep you body less sore and stiff as possible and strong for the next day. That’s basically my workout routine right now, mostly recovery.
When is in-season for you?
It’s hard to say. Now it’s kind of year round winter season because we’re constantly chasing winter. I consider this to be my in-season right now because these are my busiest months with competing and training and working. The US winter season is what I consider my busiest in-season month. It’s very competitive.
Where are some of your favorite places in the world to snowboard?
Of course one of my favorite places to snowboard is at home in Mammoth. I’m probably pretty biased about it but I love Mammoth. Out of the country my favorite place is New Zealand. The scenery is beautiful. It’s an incredible experience to go and snowboard there. Those would be my top two places.”
Where are some of your favorite places in the world to eat?
New Zealand has amazing eggs Benedict. That’s literally all I eat there, I recommend that. And Switzerland, I went this past summer and I swear I gained like five pounds. The food was so good. There’s this thing called rösti that’s basically potato and cheese baked. It’s so good, it’s the best thing I’ve ever had.
How do meals work for you when you’re on the road? Do you cook for yourself or have a chef?
It’s typically me cooking for myself or if I’m with the US team at a big event we’ll have a chef there that will help us out and cook for us, make it a little easier for us during training and competitions.
What’s your favorite thing to cook for yourself?
I think when I was like 12 I figured out how to make a veggie lasagna bake and that’s my favorite thing to cook for myself. We put zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, that’s basically the three things—and cheese, of course.
Are you excited about going to stay in the Olympic Village?
It should be a really crazy experience. It’s one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to is staying at the Olympic Village and having all of these other athletes around and getting to meet new people and experience that with some of my friends as well. I’m really excited to stay at the Olympic Village.
