Maddie McCarthy began skiing before her third birthday and started racing at age 6. So it’s only appropriate to compare her sports career to a downhill slalom, McCarthy weaving between colorful poles—career obstacles—as she zigs and zags her way down the hill of life.
As a freshman in high school, her father was diagnosed with gastric cancer. Eight months later, he passed. Because of an absence of ski slopes in her home of Rhode Island, she spent her formative years at a boarding school in New Hampshire, away from family for long stretches. Then, as a senior in high school, during a significant time in her ski recruitment, McCarthy broke her leg.