Rising U.S. 撸先生 Team star Lauren Macuga has good reason to be confident coming into Birds of Prey World Cup weekend
The 22-year-old took down world champions Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone in a pair of super-G races at Copper Mountain last week
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Lauren Macuga knows overcoming fear is a huge part of racing downhill.
She still remembers her 16-year-old self shaking at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain before her first try at the discipline in an actual race.
“We got there and it was bulletproof ice 鈥� I think I cried before it,” she said, recalling the 2019 NorAm Cup Finals on March 19. Up to that point, Macuga had considered herself more of a tech skier, thanks in large part to her meteoric rise in slalom. But her Park City 撸先生 and Snowboard coach Jay Hey sent her to Carrabassett Valley, Maine, where Macuga wound up placing 10th and 12th in a pair of downhills. A month later, she snagged giant slalom bronze at the National Championships at Mammoth Mountain,
“I went from crying to making the team off of that NorAm and I think then I was like, ‘OK, it’s kind of cool to be able to overcome that fear,’ and it kind of just kept going,” Macuga said after Wednesday’s downhill training day at Birds of Prey. Even though she was a little nervous standing at the top of the iconic course for the first time 鈥斅燼nd admitted her heart skipped a beat gazing over The Brink’s 28.5-degree max pitch 鈥� Macuga’s first ride in Beaver Creek was blissful.
“So good,” she said. “In inspection i was like, ‘oh my gosh, it just keeps going down.’ But still, because of the surface, it’s just still so nice. I think it’s just the perfect combo of a steep course with great snow.”
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Macuga is coming off a breakout super-G season which saw her claim three top-10 finishes, including a fifth in Kvitfjell, Norway on March 3. She’s kept the momentum going, sweeping the top step of the podium at both super-G FIS races at Copper Mountain last weekend. Macuga didn’t exactly beat chopped liver, either. The 22-year-old took down 2023 super-G world champion Marta Bassino in the first race and her Italian teammate, 28-time World Cup winner Federica Brignone, in the second.
“It was kind of wild seeing it 鈥� coming down and seeing the ‘1.’ This is kind of like a mini-World Cup. I know it’s totally different but actually that confidence coming into this is huge,” Macuga said. “I’m like, ‘OK, the skiing is definitely there. I just have to bring it out and charge.'”
Rising to prominence on the U.S. 撸先生 Team has become a bit of a family enterprise for the Macuga clan. while . Younger brother , is following Lauren’s path in Alpine skiing.
“Most families try to stick to the same sport. We decided to hit everything we could,” she said. “It’s been really cool to have all of us and not actually have to compete against each other. We all understand what each other is going through.”
Macuga’s parents, Amy 鈥� a waterskier 鈥� and Dan 鈥� a basketball player 鈥� met at the University of California San Diego. Neither competed in winter sports, but when the couple settled down in Park City in 2007, Amy decided to get her kids on the slope.
“She was a snowboarder actually, and she was like, ‘alright, I’m going to learn to ski and you guys are all coming with me,'” Lauren Macuga said. “We didn’t do ski school or anything; she just kind of took all four of us. She had like a 1 to a 5-year-old trying to all go skiing together.”
In addition to those super mom heroics, Macuga also credited Park City’s ‘Get Out & Play’ program for introducing her and her siblings to a variety of winter sports.
“It allows kids to try different sports every Friday. So we all did ski jumping, racing, a little bit of freestyle,” she said. “We all tried it and just kind of went our separate ways.”
Macuga said her siblings cherish the rare opportunities where they’re not spread across the globe but can instead laugh and converse under the same roof.
“(We) really take advantage of that time,” she said. “But when we’re on the road, the conversation we have together, it’s really nice to be able to talk to someone about the hardships of this: being away from home, having a bad day skiing 鈥� all those things. Even when you have a good day of skiing, having someone 鈥� they all understand that and can relate to it and I think it’s really nice to have that. Not everyone does.”
Lauren and Daniel overlapped training camps at Copper Mountain earlier this month. While Macuga said her results there on Dec. 7 and 8 haven’t shifted her expectations going into the Birds of Prey weekend, the double victory has reinforced her self-confidence.
“Coming into this year, I set high goals for myself,” she said. “And I think it was just a reminder that they are possible.”
