Maintaining with the Macugas, America’s subsequent first household of the Winter Olympics

Forgive Dan and Amy Macuga in the event that they need to seek the advice of a spreadsheet to determine the place their youngsters are.

That is a kind of issues that occurs when your three women are all skiers on the within monitor to make the U.S. Olympic workforce. There’s a boy, too, who additionally skis competitively and should ultimately find yourself on the U.S. workforce, however not in 2026.

Ah, however we digress. For the subsequent 16 months or so, the Macuga sisters of Park Metropolis, Utah (the place else?), are going to be including their very own chapter to the story of standout sports activities siblings. You’ve heard of the Manning brothers (soccer) and the Williams sisters (tennis) and the Korda crew (golf and tennis). Alpine snowboarding had Phil and Steve Mahre manner again when.

However right here’s what makes the Macugas totally different: By means of the mixed forces of getting totally different physique varieties, totally different pursuits and possibly a wholesome dose of the self-preservation intuition that led them to not need to compete in opposition to one another, every Macuga pursued a special snowboarding self-discipline. The outcome: While you meet them, there’s a little bit of a “Sound of Music” vibe to the Macugas, if the Von Trapp household had been stuffed with skiers reasonably than singers.

“I’m Sam, I’m 23, and I prefer to fly,” says Sam Macuga the ski jumper.

“I’m Lauren, I’m 22, and I prefer to go quick.” That’s Lauren Macuga, the alpine racer.

“And I’m Alli, and I’m 21, and I like all features, so I do moguls.”

Like Lauren, Daniel Macuga, the child of the household at 19, skis alpine. He doesn’t compete internationally but, so he’s a bit extra manageable. He would possibly even attend a U.S.-based school full-time first. Time, and outcomes, will inform.

Their endeavors all have a little bit of overlap. Alpine skiers fly 60 meters within the air over jumps. Mogul skiers go fairly darn quick whereas they race over large bumps whereas incorporating flips and different methods into their runs. And there could also be no scarier beginning gate than the one atop ski leaping’s massive hill.

Three sisters on one Olympic workforce could be any mother or father’s dream. Three sisters in primarily three totally different sports activities in a single Olympics is a parenting psychologist’s dream, for the reason that women have mainly by no means competed in opposition to each other, besides in Mario Kart and card video games.

“After we play video games collectively, it’s so aggressive,” Lauren Macuga stated. “If we have been all in the identical sport, it could not be doable.”

All of it occurred very organically, too. After transferring to Park Metropolis in 2007, the Macugas signed up their youngsters for the area’s Get Out and Play winter sports activities program, a legacy of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis that gives low-cost entry to winter Olympic sports activities for kids within the area. Every sister appreciated one thing else. Their dad and mom didn’t complain.

“They type of self-selected,” stated Dan Macuga, a advertising government who has labored with Chevrolet and Usana. “We’ve at all times informed them, ‘So long as you’re having enjoyable, simply preserve doing what you’re doing.’ It’s not likely our determination to make. It’s what makes them blissful, they usually selected the game that they needed to do.”

Logisticswise although, the Macuga household chronicles have lengthy been an train in organizational mayhem.

For years, that meant counting on associates and different dad and mom to get a few of their youngsters to the suitable mountain on the proper time. Lately, the varied U.S. ski groups care for that half.

The dad and mom simply need to strive to determine what continent and nation they have to be in to meet up with the kids. There’s a Google Sheet crammed out months forward of time with everybody’s schedule.

What’s occurring within the coming days?

In line with the sheet, on Thursday, Sam is scheduled to be in Engelberg, Switzerland, making ready for qualification the subsequent day. Lauren might be coaching in St. Moritz, preparing for Saturday’s Tremendous-G race; Alli is coaching for the weekend’s moguls competitors in Georgia — the nation not the state — after touring from Alpe D’huez in France the day earlier than; father Dan Macuga and Amy are flying to Zurich that afternoon. Daniel, the little brother, is dwelling on responsibility with the canine, Yuki, a Siberian husky, and Bowser, a “megamutt,” based on the ladies. The 4 cats type of care for themselves.

The spreadsheet is essentially for the dad and mom’ use. The kids have their very own strategies.

“My teammates might be like, ‘Oh, the place’s your brother? The place are your sisters?’” Alli Macuga stated. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, someplace the world over? I feel they’re in Europe. Possibly like Japan, or like Norway or, I don’t know, Germany.’ It’s at all times only a guessing recreation. Or I’ll test Discover My Buddies (app) and be like, ‘Oh, that’s the place they’re.’”

“Yeah, Discover My Buddies is our hero,” Sam Macuga stated.

Alli and Lauren discovered themselves in the identical lodge in Chile this summer season for every week of coaching. That was bizarre. Mainly by no means occurs.

As soon as they work out the place one another is, generally they notice a sister is competing at that very second. They are going to faucet away on their varied devices till they discover a reside stream of the competitors someplace and cheer alongside from 1000’s of miles away.

Alli, the mogul specialist, has posted the most effective outcomes of the household up to now, although Lauren confirmed indicators that she could be approaching quick. 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 missed her first spot on a World Cup podium by 0.18 seconds.

If she retains that up, she might be following within the footsteps of Alli, who has come a bit out of nowhere the previous couple of years to change into one of many U.S. workforce’s rising stars.

She landed on two podiums final season and completed fifth on the earth rankings and has two top-15 finishes to start out this World Cup season. There’s not an excessive amount of thriller surrounding her success. Throughout her early teenagers, she appreciated freestyle snowboarding a lot she competed in seven totally different disciplines, all the things from “massive air,” which goes off one big soar and doing a little flips and spins, to “massive mountain,” which requires flying down a steep descent stuffed with cliffs and horrifying drops.

“I used to be always competing and touring and never coaching,” she stated.

She determined to decide on the 2 she appreciated most, which have been moguls and large mountain. However at 17, on the junior world championships in massive mountain in Switzerland, she crashed on a cliff and fractured her again. That just about ended her massive mountain profession.

Two seasons in the past, she was supposed to simply have a number of begins on the top-tier World Cup circuit and spend the remainder of the season competing a stage down on the Nor-Am Tour. Then she completed twelfth in her first World Cup begin. She ended up getting the World Cup Rookie of the 12 months award and likewise profitable the Nor-Am tour.

She’s fairly certain that not specializing in a single self-discipline too quickly and people early years attempting out alpine and leaping together with her sisters have performed an enormous position in her success.

“All of them contributed to one another,” she stated.

Lauren Macuga stated she received hooked on pace snowboarding when her coach threw her right into a downhill race in Sugarloaf in Maine when she was 16. Practically all youngsters begin out snowboarding gates and don’t transfer into the pace disciplines till they’re older.

Lauren had by no means raced downhill earlier than. She rapidly found that the race mainly occurs on ice, reasonably than snow. She did her first coaching run absolutely clothed, wanting some safety in case she fell. She wore pants throughout the second.

Her coach informed her to purpose for ending inside two seconds of the leaders. She completed a little bit greater than a second behind them and received hooked on the adrenaline rush.

The shift to competing in Europe on the highest stage has been an training. American mountains, particularly within the decrease rungs of competitors, don’t have the icy steeps of Europe, with jumps over waterfalls and different high-octane challenges. One take a look at the left-right mixture of the “Scorching Air” soar in Zauchensee, Austria, final yr and she or he thought it could be the tip of her.

“Initially and also you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I simply need to make it down,’” she stated. “I suppose the concern issue simply type of turned extra into, it was enjoyable.”

A season-best fifth-place end in Tremendous-G in Kvitfjell, Norway, final season went a ways towards that transformation.

Sam Macuga has additional to go to get to that stage. The U.S. doesn’t have the historical past of success in girls’s ski leaping that it does in alpine and freestyle. Ladies didn’t compete within the Olympics till 2014, and funding for an American leaping workforce could be exhausting to come back by.

However she’s already accumulating factors towards a spot on the U.S. workforce for 2026. Her slight construct has at all times been well-suited to leaping, the place being mild might help you soar. She’s additionally received a technical thoughts and research electrical engineering at Dartmouth for 1 / 4 annually.

Plus, there may be this:

“I prefer to fly,” she stated.

That’s not at all times the form of factor a mother or father likes to listen to. And there isn’t a lot consolation with the opposite youngsters, given Alli’s mid-slope flips and Lauren and Daniel tearing down sheets of ice at 80 mph.

No matter, the Macugas are used to it.

Amy Macuga says she will get nervous for them within the beginning gate however not out of concern of an damage.

“They hit the bottom fairly exhausting, and like every mother or father, you’ll be able to have that inkling to start out operating towards them, however you additionally know that with the workforce that they’re in good fingers,” Dan Macuga stated. “You understand that folks (are) taking excellent care of them and wouldn’t allow them to do one thing that they thought it was gonna harm them.”

Plus, they’ve a spreadsheet to handle, which is sufficient to fear about.

“We used to function off a whiteboard,” Lauren Macuga stated. “We’ve upgraded.”

(Prime photograph of, from left, Alli, Lauren, Amy, Dan and Sam Macuga on the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Gold Medal Gala in New York in October 2023: Michael Loccisano / Getty Pictures)