Dan Macuga felt the buzz of his phone in bed around 5 a.m. on Sunday. The caller ID read “Lauren.”
“Why would she be calling me?” he wondered. “I was like, oh man, something happened.”
He answered the phone. On the other end, eight time zones ahead, was the crackling voice of his middle daughter. He will never forget it.
“Dad,” Lauren Macuga said, “I won.”
She was speaking minutes after her first Alpine skiing World Cup victory, a super-G in St. Anton, Austria.
A year earlier, the best finish of Lauren’s budding career had been 17th. She steadily improved since, strengthened in particular by gym work over the summer.
On Sunday, she made her first World Cup podium a victory (by a dominant margin of 68 hundredths of a second). At 22, she became the youngest American to win a World Cup speed race (downhill or super-G) since her idol, Lindsey Vonn, in 2007.
American Lauren Macuga earns first Alpine skiing World Cup win
Lauren Macuga became the youngest American to win a World Cup speed race in 18 years.
After breaking the news to her dad, Lauren found time amid celebrations to coordinate a FaceTime call with him, plus her mom Amy and her two sisters: fellow 2026 Olympic hopefuls Alli (a moguls skier) and Sam (a ski jumper).
They could become the third set of three siblings to compete on the same U.S. Winter Olympic team, according to Bill Mallon of the OlyMADMen. If two make it, it will be the first time siblings compete on the same U.S. Winter Olympic team in distinctly different sport disciplines.
Alli connected to Sunday’s group call while at the Salt Lake City International Airport. She was about to fly to the East Coast for her own competitions.
Alli, the youngest daughter at 21, made her first World Cup moguls podiums last season — a third place, followed by a second place.
Sam, the oldest daughter at 23, was in Norway on Sunday before heading to Japan for this weekend’s ski jumping World Cup stop.
Dan grew up playing basketball. Amy was a competitive water skier. But their children gravitated to the snow through Park City’s Get Out & Play youth sports program, a legacy project of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.
They all attended the Park City Winter Sports School, which has an April-through-November academic calendar, allowing student-athletes to train and compete in the winter. Many future Winter Olympians went there, including Alpine skiing gold medalists Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso.
“All my kids are very competitive, but not with each other,” Dan said Monday morning. “Now, of course, if they’re playing a board game over Christmas, yeah, there’s going to be some competition there, but they celebrate each other.”
There is another Macuga: son/brother Daniel, a 19-year-old competitive Alpine skier, was at home in Park City on Sunday morning.
“I can’t remember exactly how he put it, but he came downstairs, and he’s like, ‘Yep, I’m going to hear about that at my next ski camp,’” Dan said, laughing. “It was just a full-blown family celebration. That’s the best part about the way all these kids compete is they celebrate each other.”
Each sibling posted on social media, too.
“She’s a legend, a fashion icon, AND A WORLD CUP WINNER,” Sam wrote, along with an image of Lauren wearing a trademark bucket hat, a T-shirt with pictures of her cat, Kodiak, and what appears to be a necklace of hot dogs.
“It’s her teammates. It’s because she was a wiener that day,” Dan said. “So they made her a hot dog necklace just to celebrate. It’s her team having fun.”
Brother Daniel posted, “Get her a head sponsor.”
That referenced Lauren’s racing helmet. She attached a question mark on it before the St. Anton races. The world’s top ski racers — a group that now includes Lauren — typically have sponsor logos at that spot.
Her father said that Lauren has been trying to find a sponsor. They recently spoke with retired Olympian Steven Nyman, who sold his helmet space on eBay in 2006.
Dan, who has worked in sales and marketing for more than 30 years, then suggested the question mark to attract attention.
He expects her to have a helmet sponsor “fairly soon,” though likely not in time for the next races this weekend at the 2026 Olympic site of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The Macugas will continue crisscrossing the globe the rest of this winter.
The first full week of February is a big one: Lauren is in line to make her senior world championships debut in Austria. Alli could compete in a home World Cup in Park City. Sam could be part of the first women’s ski jumping World Cup ever held in the U.S. (in Lake Placid, New York). Daniel is slated to race on the Nor-Am circuit in British Columbia.
Alli summed up the family feeling with her post on Sunday morning: “NOOOO WAYYYY,” she wrote. “LAURENNNNNN IM AMAZED YOU BADASS”