Lauren Macuga Won on the World Cup, Then Lost an Olympic Season to Her Knee. The Park City Skier Says She Is Racing This Year

Lauren Macuga of Park City won her first World Cup race on Jan. 12, 2025, a super-G at St. Anton, Austria, in 1:17.51, by FIS timing 0.68 seconds clear of second place. U.S. Ski & Snowboard says she was the first U.S. woman to win a super-G there.

Ten months later, in training at Copper Mountain in November 2025, she tore the ACL in her right knee. U.S. Ski & Snowboard says the injury ended her season before it began and ruled her out of the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.

Now she is pointing at the women's speed races at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Of a team camp in Chile and training at Copper Mountain, she told the Park Record in July: "With that and Copper (Mountain) training, I'm planning on racing Beaver Creek." "But only if I'm feeling ready. … Either way, I'm racing this year."

The 2024-25 season

Macuga's breakthrough season came in the speed events. Before the St. Anton win she was fourth in the downhill at Beaver Creek on Dec. 14, 2024, and sixth in the downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Jan. 25, 2025, by FIS records.

At the World Championships in Saalbach, Austria, on Feb. 6, 2025, she tied Norway's Kajsa Vickhoff Lie for bronze in the super-G, 0.24 seconds off the winning time. She was fifth in the downhill two days later and fourth in the team combined on Feb. 11.

On March 1, 2025, she was second in the downhill at Kvitfjell, Norway, 0.03 seconds behind Germany's Emma Aicher, her second World Cup podium. She finished the season fourth in the World Cup downhill standings and sixth in super-G, by FIS, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard says she was named the U.S. Alpine Championships' Athlete of the Year and Most Improved for that season.

Park City roots

U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists her hometown as Park City, Utah, and her club as Park City Ski & Snowboard. She has been on the national team since 2020. Her World Cup debut came in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, on Dec. 3, 2021, where she was 49th, and her first World Cup points followed at St. Moritz on Dec. 16, 2022, by FIS records. Her U.S. Ski & Snowboard page carries her own take on that start: "I was last in my first World Cup, but it was all about the experience!"

FIS records show her as a 2020 Youth Olympic Games competitor and a junior world championships downhill bronze medalist at Panorama, Canada, on March 3, 2022. Before the breakthrough she was fifth in the super-G at Kvitfjell on March 3, 2024, and after it, fifth in the super-G at La Thuile on March 13, 2025. FIS has her 17th in the 2024-25 overall standings with 525 points.

It is a ski family. Her sister Alli Macuga is on the U.S. moguls team, with Park City as her hometown and the University of Utah as her school, by U.S. Ski & Snowboard, which lists her as the 2023 FIS Rookie of the Year with World Cup podiums at Alpe d'Huez and Almaty, and her sister Sam is a ski jumper whose FIS record lists Park City as her residence.

"We are so in for 2030," Macuga told the Park Record, of the family's hopes for the French Alps Games. "That's the goal, we all plan to be there."

The knee

FIS lists her status as injured since Nov. 28, 2025. KPCW reported that she has had two surgeries, and Ski Racing reported in June that the second, in March 2026, removed scar tissue that had stopped her knee from straightening.

Recovery has been slow and then steady. "It sucked at the beginning, but now it's paying off," she told KPCW in September.

"The biggest thing I've learned is just how much I love the sport," she told Ski Racing in June.

Back on snow

U.S. Ski & Snowboard named Macuga to the women's A team of the 2026-27 U.S. Alpine Ski Team on Oct. 7, 2026. Ski Racing reported the same day that she had returned to snow after missing the entire 2025-26 season, and that she still had to build from training to race readiness. KPCW reported in September that she planned to train in Chile, would return at Beaver Creek only if she was fully ready, and that she wears a knee brace and plans to keep it for at least a year.

The FIS calendar has the women's downhill at Beaver Creek on Dec. 11 and 12, 2026, after training runs on Dec. 9 and 10, and a super-G on Dec. 13. No start list has been published yet.

For more Utah winter athletes, see the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.

Key facts:

• Athlete: Lauren Macuga, alpine skiing (downhill and super-G), 2026-27 U.S. Alpine Ski Team A team
• Hometown: Park City, Utah; club Park City Ski & Snowboard
• First World Cup win: super-G, St. Anton, Austria, Jan. 12, 2025, 1:17.51
• World Championships: super-G bronze, Saalbach, Feb. 6, 2025, tied with Kajsa Vickhoff Lie
• 2024-25 standings: fourth in downhill, sixth in super-G
• Injury: torn right ACL in training at Copper Mountain, November 2025; missed Milano Cortina 2026
• Next target: World Cup speed races at Beaver Creek, Dec. 11-13, 2026, if fully ready