Age: 15

Birthplace: Steamboat, Colo.

Resides in: Steamboat, Colo.

Years in X Games: 2

2010 events: snowboard superpipe

         The X Games have been around long enough that there is now a generation of athletes who grew up with the event.

         Maddy Schaffick, 15, of Steamboat, Colo., is one of those athletes. She is also the youngest competitor at this year’s games. A snowboarder competing in the halfpipe, these are actually her second X Games.

         She failed to qualify for the superpipe finals after falling on both her runs in the elimination round.

         Schaffrick took up the sport at age seven after watching the X Games women’s snowboard superpipe finals on television.

         “It just looked fun,” Schaffrick said. “The next season I started snowboarding.”

         Schaffrick said she feels like she’s living the dream, hanging out with top athletes and soaking up the X Games. But she understands the need to keep a good head on her shoulders.

         “It’s hard to keep things in perspective sometimes because I go home and I hand out with my friends who are sophomores in high school,” she said.

         And imagine being 15 and having an agent.

         “I know,” she said. “It’s weird to say — ‘meet my agent.’”

         Schaffrick said her latest effort is perfecting a frontside 720, all corked out with a tail grab. The secret? “Go big enough so you have enough time to do it,” she said.

         Staying focused year round would be key to achieving the heights of the greats of the sport, and Schaffrick said she hopes to be there someday.

         “But really I’m just looking to have fun,” she said.

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