“I would absolutely lose it if any of them was doing moguls,” Alli said. “I don’t think I could handle that. I would get so pissed if they were beating me.”
During the family’s dinner last July, Dan turned and grinned mischievously.
“Watch this,” he said quietly, before addressing the table. “So, whose sport is the hardest?”
The siblings argued for the next minute. It would have been all right, her father later commented, if some of the siblings’ disciplines had overlapped.
“That would be a nightmare,” Lauren said. “It would be World War Macuga in this household.”
Not being pushed to cluster into one sport has reduced competition among the siblings and allowed the Macugas to freely chat with one another about their anxieties, stresses and successes without worrying it could cost them a spot on a podium. Within elite sports, not every athlete has such an outlet. The Macugas believe their strong bonds are an advantage.
The encouragement can be vital.
When Lauren won her first race in the prestigious Alpine World Cup in Austria in early 2025, she called Sam, who was in Norway, and told her she was flustered by the unexpected win and the attention that came with it. They talked it through, in a uniquely Macuga way. The siblings admit they don’t know the nuances of one another’s disciplines, but they can relate to the stress of navigating life as a professional athlete.
“I haven’t skied in the World Cup or done dual moguls,” Sam said. “But if you want to talk about being on the circuit, or having to travel so much, or dealing with the ski team, like, yeah, I got you.”
Others took notice after Lauren’s victory. Lindsey Vonn, the gold medal-winning U.S. skier, has said that “women like Lauren have so much potential and so much talent and work ethic.” Yet when Lauren tore a knee ligament in a fall during a November training run, it ended her Olympic ambitions in a year when winning a medal might have led to mainstream recognition.
“RIP acl,” she wrote on Instagram. Photos she posted later showed her wearing her trademark bucket hat in a hospital bed, post-surgery.