Lauren Macuga Is Charging Towards Olympic Glory With a Bubbly Personality and 50 Bucket Hats

U.S. Ski Team alpine racer Lauren Macuga strikes the right balance between knowing how and when to have fun, and realizing when it is time to focus, charge forward and take care of business on the mountain.

The 23-year-old, bubbly Park City, Utah skier approaches this winter brimming with confidence, coming off a breakthrough season in 2024-25. Macuga raced to her first career World Cup victory in a super-G at St. Anton, Austria, in January, following with a World Championship bronze medal in Saalbach, in February. She put a cherry on top of those accomplishments with a second place downhill showing in Kvitfjell, Norway, finishing just 0.03 seconds behind German Emma Aicher, in early March.

It was a winter season that exceeded Macuga’s expectations.

“Going into last season, I knew I could get on that podium, but to start off my journey by winning, my first podium ever was a win, and I was like ‘wow, this is insane, it can’t get any better,’” Macuga tells POWDER, in a video interview from her home in Park City.

“And then the world champs medal – it was just a crazy year. I worked really hard for it. I knew I could do it, but I wouldn’t say I expected it.”

Medals>Powder Skiing, for Now

Having recently returned from a Southern Hemisphere pre-season training camp in La Parva and Ushuaia, Chile, Lauren admits she was tempted to make a few powder turns. However, team priorities and a tight schedule, unfortunately, prevented her fun, this time.

“It snowed like 90 centimeters while we we were down there – so it was a lot,” Macuga says. “We ended up taking three days off and the day we came back, it was all soft snow. The men’s team said it was some of their best powder skiing, so we were a little jealous.

“We were only there for three weeks and our coaches were like we have to go train, so that was good for me, no matter how much I wanted to go powder skiing.”

Getting Faster With a Little Help From Her Friends

Leaving powder skiing for future snowy days in Utah, Lauren possesses the desire and determination to train and compete alongside a veteran Stifel U.S. Ski Team squad, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Breezy Johnson, Jackie Wiles, and Lindsey Vonn. Macuga is excited for her fourth full season on tour and thrives on how her teammates motivate one another.

“It’s cool to see how strong our team is right now – it’s crazy how any one of us could be top dog for the day, like at our training in Chile,” she said. “I love having the others there to push me. You’re always striving to go faster and with this team, it’s nonstop. It’s been some of the best training since I’ve joined this team.”

Younger and less experienced than most of her U.S. teammates, Macuga knows what she needs to do to keep moving the needle, striving to shave off time on World Cup race courses.

“You’re trying to improve a little bit each time – for me, the technical part is trying to be as clean as possible and tactically, pushing the line a little bit,” Macuga says. “As training ramps up closer to the season, I’m trying to mimic race days and that vibe, trying to go 100-percent.”

The Olympics are Coming

Naturally, making her first Olympic Team with the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games scheduled for February 6-22, 2026, is a top priority for Macuga.

All women’s alpine ski races will be contested on the historic Olympia delle Tofane piste in Cortina d’Ampezzo. It is a slope and setting that Macuga is familiar with as she pursues her fourth, but most important trip to the Italian Dolomites resort.

“It’s a very playful track and I think I’ve really started to figure it out – my first year, I won the split up top and then last year won the bottom split, so I just need to put it all together in one run” Macuga says about the 1.6-mile Olympia delle Tofane course. “It’s so much fun jumping through the Tofane Schuss, coming straight down and then into the Daytona turn.

“Last season, I was thinking ‘wow, this will be the Olympic venue.’ And all summer, thinking it’s going to be insane – the crowds, the vibes and the whole town. It will be really cool, but I don’t want to gloat about it. I mean, we haven’t qualified yet.”

Taking another step towards those ambitions, Macuga recently partnered with Stifel, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team’s primary sponsor.

“Stifel is my head sponsor now – they are my main people,” Macuga said, about the new partnership. “They’ve been supporting the U.S. Ski Team and it’s actually made a difference. We have a big season coming up, so it’s very exciting to have them onboard with me for this upcoming season.”

(Nearly) 50 Bucket Hats and Counting

As the determined racer fearlessly pursues her first Olympic Games, she is also making quite the fashion statement. Lauren can often be seen wearing her beloved bucket hats before and after races, and in and around ski towns. She’ll certainly bring Italian fashion and style to another level in chic and trendy Cortina.

“We counted the other day, and I believe it was about 40 or 45 that I’m now up to, so it has increased,” Macuga reveals, about her vast bucket hat wardrobe. “It’s my fun little collection, and I’m excited to keep wearing them at every race next season.

“There are some cool ones. Last season in Sun Valley, one of the workers made me a bucket hat out of his old guest uniform, so that was really cool.

“All of them have their own stories, so it’s a fun little timeline of my adventures.”

The whimsical hat collection is yet another example of Lauren’s knack to quickly transition between hard work on the mountain and having loads of fun off of it.

It (Skis) in the Family

For Lauren, passion for winter sports is a family affair. Her older sister Samantha, 24, is a ski jumper, and younger sister Alli, 22, is a mogul skier. Their younger brother Daniel also ski races.

All three sisters proudly compete for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team. There’s potential that Lauren, Alli, and Samantha could all represent their country at the Olympics in Italy. 

“It’s always been the dream of ours to all be there at the same time,” Lauren says. “I understand how difficult that is, but I do know it’s a possibility, if we all ski our best this season.

“We have a chance, and if it’s not this Olympics, then we’ll be pushing hard for the French Alps (2030 Winter Olympics). We just love what we’re doing and we’re all going to give it our best shot to all be there.” 

For fun-loving Lauren and her sisters, it would be the perfect storm.

Stay tuned here at POWDER for more exclusive stories about the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Related: What Is Dual Moguls? Learn All About The Olympics’ New Freestyle Skiing Competition