Maddie Mastro competes in women's halfpipe snowboarding qualification on Dec. 12, 2019 in Copper Mountain, Colo.
In the first women’s halfpipe snowboarding contest of the season, 2018 Olympian Maddie Mastro knocked off the rust of more than nine months between competitions with a first-place finish in qualification and a third-place finish in the final at the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
This is Mastro’s seventh career world cup podium. Her best run was her first, scoring a 77.50. She followed that up with a 71.50 on her second run, and couldn’t land her third and final run in an attempt to leapfrog one of the two ahead of her.
The win went to Spain’s Queralt Castellet with a top score of 87.75 on her first run. China’s Jiayu Liu was second with a best score of 80.00.
Last season, Mastro dealt world and Olympic champion Chloe Kim a rare loss as she won the Burton US Open in Vail, Colorado, by 12-hundredths of a point. She became the first woman ever to land a double crippler on her last run, and ended Kim’s winning streak at eight consecutive competitions. Kim is not competing this season, having decided to focus on her freshman year at Princeton University.
Mastro also won bronze at the 2019 world championships in February, and last December claimed silver at the Dew Tour and was second at the U.S. Grand Prix.
Toby Miller, Kim’s boyfriend, was fourth in the men’s final with a first-run score of 87.75.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
