Forgive Dan and Amy Macuga if they have got to seek the advice of a spreadsheet to determine the place their kids are.
That is a type of issues that occurs when your 3 women are all skiers at the within monitor to build the U.S. Olympic staff. There’s a boy, too, who additionally skis competitively and would possibly ultimately finally end up at the U.S. staff, however now not in 2026.
Ah, however we digress. For the after 16 months or so, the Macuga sisters of Ground Town, Utah (the place else?), are taking to be including their very own bankruptcy to the tale of standout sports activities siblings. You’ve heard of the Manning brothers (soccer) and the Williams sisters (tennis) and the Korda staff (golfing and tennis). Alpine snowboarding had Phil and Steve Mahre long ago when.
However right here’s what makes the Macugas other: In the course of the mixed forces of getting other frame sorts, other pursuits and most likely a hearty dose of the self-preservation intuition that led them not to wish to compete towards every alternative, every Macuga pursued a distinct snowboarding self-discipline. The end result: Whilst you meet them, there’s a little bit of a “Sound of Music” vibe to the Macugas, if the Von Trapp population have been stuffed with skiers in lieu than singers.
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“I’m Sam, I’m 23, and I like to fly,” says Sam Macuga the ski jumper.
“I’m Lauren, I’m 22, and I like to go fast.” That’s Lauren Macuga, the alpine racer.
“And I’m Alli, and I’m 21, and I like all aspects, so I do moguls.”
Like Lauren, Daniel Macuga, the child of the population at 19, skis alpine. He doesn’t compete the world over but, so he’s slightly extra manageable. He may even attend a U.S.-based faculty full-time first. Moment, and effects, will inform.
Their endeavors all have slightly of overlap. Alpine skiers fly 60 meters within the wind over jumps. Multi-millionaire skiers travel good-looking darn speedy hour they race over immense bumps hour incorporating flips and alternative methods into their runs. And there could also be deny scarier foundation gate than the only atop ski leaping’s massive hill.
3 sisters on one Olympic staff can be any father or mother’s dream. 3 sisters in necessarily 3 other sports activities in a single Olympics is a parenting psychologist’s dream, because the women have principally by no means competed towards one some other, with the exception of in Mario Kart and card video games.
“When we play games together, it’s so competitive,” Lauren Macuga mentioned. “If we were all in the same sport, it would not be possible.”
Lauren Macuga completed fourth within the downhill in Saturday’s International Cup match in Beaver Creek, Colo. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Photographs)
All of it took place very organically, too. Nearest transferring to Ground Town in 2007, the Macugas signed up their youngsters for the area’s Get Out and Play games iciness sports activities program, a legacy of the 2002 Wintry weather Olympics in Salt Pool Town that gives reasonable get entry to to iciness Olympic sports activities for kids within the area. Every sister appreciated one thing else. Their oldsters didn’t bitch.
“They kind of self-selected,” mentioned Dan Macuga, a advertising govt who has labored with Chevrolet and Usana. “We’ve always told them, ‘As long as you’re having fun, just keep doing what you’re doing.’ It’s not really our decision to make. It’s what makes them happy, and they chose the sport that they wanted to do.”
Logisticswise although, the Macuga population chronicles have lengthy been an workout in organizational mayhem.
For years, that supposed depending on pals and alternative oldsters to get a few of their youngsters to the proper mountain on the accurate generation. At the present time, the diverse U.S. ski groups deal that section.
The fogeys simply need to struggle to determine what continent and nation they wish to be in to meet up with the youngsters. There’s a Google Sheet stuffed out months forward of generation with everybody’s agenda.
What’s taking place within the coming days?
In keeping with the sheet, on Thursday, Sam is scheduled to be in Engelberg, Switzerland, making ready for qualification the after generation. Lauren will likely be coaching in St. Moritz, getting able for Saturday’s Tremendous-G race; Alli is coaching for the weekend’s moguls festival in Georgia — the rustic now not the condition — next touring from Alpe D’huez in France the generation prior to; father Dan Macuga and Amy are gliding to Zurich that afternoon. Daniel, the tiny brother, is house on accountability with the canine, Yuki, a Siberian husky, and Bowser, a “megamutt,” in line with the women. The 4 cats roughly deal themselves.
The spreadsheet is in large part for the fogeys’ worth. The kids have their very own modes.
“My teammates will be like, ‘Oh, where’s your brother? Where are your sisters?’” Alli Macuga mentioned. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, somewhere across the world? I think they’re in Europe. Maybe like Japan, or like Norway or, I don’t know, Germany.’ It’s always just a guessing game. Or I’ll check Find My Friends (app) and be like, ‘Oh, that’s where they are.’”
“Yeah, Find My Friends is our hero,” Sam Macuga mentioned.
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Alli and Lauren discovered themselves in the similar lodge in Chile this summer time for a future of coaching. That used to be bizarre. Mainly by no means occurs.
After they work out the place every alternative is, every so often they notice a sister is competing at that very presen. They are going to faucet away on their diverse devices till they discover a are living flow of the contest someplace and cheer alongside from hundreds of miles away.
Alli, the multi-millionaire specialist, has posted the most efficient result of the population thus far, although Lauren confirmed indicators that she may well be approaching speedy. Racing the famed Birds of Prey monitor at Beaver Creek in Colorado over the weekend, she completed fourth within the downhill and twelfth in Tremendous-G. Within the downhill, she ignored her first justified a International Cup podium by means of 0.18 seconds.
If she helps to keep that up, she will likely be following within the footsteps of Alli, who has come slightly out of nowhere the pace couple of years to develop into some of the U.S. staff’s emerging stars.
Multi-millionaire specialist Alli Macuga has been the summit performer of the population thus far, aiming for a place at the 2026 Olympic staff. (Sarah Stier / Getty Photographs)
She landed on two podiums utmost season and completed 5th on this planet scores and has two top-15 finishes to start out this International Cup season. There’s now not extra thriller order her luck. Right through her early teenagers, she appreciated freestyle snowboarding such a lot she competed in seven other grounds, the entirety from “big air,” which goes off one abundance leap and doing a little flips and spins, to “big mountain,” which calls for gliding i’m sick a steep descent stuffed with cliffs and horrifying drops.
“I was constantly competing and traveling and not training,” she mentioned.
She made up our minds to make a choice the 2 she appreciated maximum, that have been moguls and bulky mountain. However at 17, on the juvenile global championships in bulky mountain in Switzerland, she crashed on a cliff and fractured her again. That good-looking a lot ended her bulky mountain occupation.
Two seasons in the past, she used to be intended to simply have a couple of begins at the top-tier International Cup circuit and spend the remains of the season competing a degree i’m sick at the Nor-Am Excursion. Nearest she completed twelfth in her first International Cup get started. She ended up getting the International Cup Rookie of the Month award and likewise successful the Nor-Am excursion.
She’s good-looking certain that now not that specialize in one self-discipline too quickly and the ones early years testing alpine and leaping together with her sisters have performed a bulky position in her luck.
“They all contributed to each other,” she mentioned.
Lauren Macuga mentioned she were given addicted to velocity snowboarding when her teacher threw her right into a downhill race in Sugarloaf in Maine when she used to be 16. Just about all youngsters get started out snowboarding gates and don’t journey into the velocity grounds till they’re used.
Lauren had by no means raced downhill prior to. She temporarily came upon that the race principally occurs on ice, in lieu than snow. She did her first coaching run absolutely clothed, short of some coverage in case she fell. She wore pants all over the second.
Her teacher advised her to effort for completing inside two seconds of the leaders. She completed a tiny greater than a 2d at the back of them and were given hooked at the adrenaline accelerate.
The shift to competing in Europe on the absolute best stage has been an training. American mountains, particularly within the decrease rungs of festival, don’t have the cold steeps of Europe, with jumps over waterfalls and alternative high-octane demanding situations. One have a look at the left-right mixture of the “Hot Air” leap in Zauchensee, Austria, utmost era and she or he concept it may well be the top of her.
“At first and also you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I just want to make it down,’” she said. “I guess the fear factor just kind of turned more into, it was fun.”
A season-best fifth-place finish in Super-G in Kvitfjell, Norway, last season went some distance toward that transformation.
Sam Macuga has further to go to get to that level. The U.S. doesn’t have the historical past of luck in ladies’s ski leaping that it does in alpine and freestyle. Girls didn’t compete within the Olympics till 2014, and investment for an American leaping staff can also be dry to come back by means of.
However she’s already collecting issues towards a place at the U.S. staff for 2026. Her negligible create has all the time been well-suited to leaping, the place being sunny can aid you leap. She’s additionally were given a technical thoughts and research electric engineering at Dartmouth for 1 / 4 every era.
Plus, there’s this:
“I like to fly,” she mentioned.
That’s now not all the time any such factor a father or mother likes to listen to. And there isn’t a lot condolense with the alternative youngsters, given Alli’s mid-slope flips and Lauren and Daniel tearing i’m sick sheets of ice at 80 mph.
No matter, the Macugas are old to it.
Amy Macuga says she will get anxious for them within the foundation gate however now not out of worry of an trauma.
“They hit the ground pretty hard, and like any parent, you can have that inkling to start running toward them, but you also know that with the team that they’re in good hands,” Dan Macuga mentioned. “You know that people (are) taking good care of them and wouldn’t let them do something that they thought it was gonna hurt them.”
Plus, they have got a spreadsheet to supremacy, which is plenty to fret about.
“We used to operate off a whiteboard,” Lauren Macuga mentioned. “We have upgraded.”
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(Supremacy photograph of, from left, Alli, Lauren, Amy, Dan and Sam Macuga on the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Gold Medal Gala in Fresh York in October 2023: Michael Loccisano / Getty Photographs)
