Daniel Shubert watched snowboarders jump off the tallest halfpipe in the world and thought about what could go wrong: concussions, joint dislocations, clavicle fractures. Not to mention blunt abdominal and chest trauma, which could cause a lung puncture.

For athletes flying 20 feet above the 22.5-foot halfpipe, missing a landing would be like falling from a three-story building.

Shubert, an orthopedic surgeon at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, was there to make sure the U.S. snowboard halfpipe team made it to the Olympics in one piece.

“I think what makes it stressful as the physician is they’re all so good,” Shubert, 49, said this week upon his return to Maine. “They hardly ever screw up, they’re so good at what they do. It’s highly unlikely you would go through a competition like the Olympics without someone sustaining an injury, but it’s pretty unpredictable.”

The halfpipe training camp in Laax, Switzerland, was the last opportunity to train before the Milano Cortina Games began Feb. 6. Snowboard halfpipe competitions started with qualifying Wednesday and will lead up to finals on Friday.

In Switzerland, athletes from almost a dozen nations, including four women and four men who qualified from the United States, spent days practicing routines, perfecting sky-high tricks and jumping off a halfpipe chosen for its height and structural similarity to the one they will compete on in Italy.

The U.S. ski and snowboard teams choose physicians from a medical pool to attend training camps. When the physician selected for the halfpipe camp cancelled at the last minute, Shubert took a couple weeks off work, attended an acute traumatic injury training course and flew to Switzerland on Jan. 24.

There, he met Chloe Kim, a two-time Olympic snowboarding champion and a favorite for gold this year; Maddy Schaffrick, coming back from a decade of retirement; Maddie Mastro, vying for her first medal; Alessandro Barbieri, a 17-year-old known for throwing huge tricks; and Jake Pates, who is competing in his second Olympics.

They are coached by Danny Kass, a two-time medalist who Shubert says helped propel the sport to a worldwide stage.

He said everyone on the team is humble and hardworking.

“You get to know these people really fairly well in a short amount of time, because you’re with them all day, every day,” Shubert said. “Their stories become personalized.”

The team did not sustain any major injuries that required medical intervention, Shubert said, but that doesn’t mean they’re in full health. Kim, who has been recovering from a shoulder injury she received while training in early January, snowboarded with a brace during her qualifying run Wednesday.

Shubert has been an orthopedic surgeon for more than three years. He said he’s worked to build a high-level orthopedics sports medicine program in central Maine so athletes don’t have to travel to Portland or Boston for care.

His trip to Switzerland meant postponing a packed schedule of surgeries and clinic visits in Augusta, Oakland and Waterville, but he said his patients and the staff at MaineGeneral understood.

It’s not often someone from Maine gets to be part of the stories, feats and struggles that define Olympic glory.

But the Bangor native said the state’s role is getting bigger. Almost everyone he met had a connection to Maine or Sugarloaf Mountain, which he said gave him a “little bit of street cred.” Four athletes from Maine will chase medals for Team USA this month.

Shubert said he intends on working with the athletes again after having such a positive experience with them in Switzerland. For now, he’s content to watch the Olympics from his house in Falmouth.

“It’s a point of pride to be able to come from Maine and work with people like this on this sort of stage,” Shubert said, “and get people exposure to what we’re capable of here in Maine.”