Lauren Macuga’s Secret to Success Is Bucket Hats — and Having Enjoyable

The Park City velocity sensation is beginning in Saturday’s Copper Cup large slalom

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. – Lauren Macuga had greater than only a second final season. The 23-year-old from Park City, Utah, went from just about unknown to immediately probably the most compelling forces on the World Cup.

Focusing on downhill and super-G, Macuga earned her first World Cup factors two seasons in the past, escalating to prime 10s and wrapping up the 2024 season with a fifth place in super-G in Kvitfjell, Norway.

She fired into final season with a outstanding fourth place within the Beaver Creek downhill and adopted up along with her first World Cup victory within the St. Anton super-G in January. She then collected the primary main {hardware} of her profession – a World Championship super-G bronze medal. She went on to fifth in downhill and narrowly missed one other medal with a fourth in Team Combined, profitable the downhill portion of the race. She closed out the season with one other near-win within the Kvitfjell downhill, taking second by 0.03 seconds.

Macuga is now staring down her first Olympic season. Training at Copper Mountain with the remainder of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team over the past couple of weeks, she is planning on making her 2025-26 race debut in Saturday’s World Cup large slalom as she seems to be to maintain constructing on the dynamic, attacking snowboarding that outlined her breakthrough 12 months.

Starting in Copper GS

“It’s a mini big goal to be a good GS skier,” says Macuga, who completed a powerful fifteenth in her first profession World Cup GS at Sun Valley final March. “Two years ago, we spent a lot of time training GS. It’s been one of the things that has really brought up my SG game. That’s what helped me make that jump.”

As to the leap – extra like a leap – she took final season, the cheerful, bucket hat-wearing athlete says she felt it coming.

“The year before, I knew I had it in me. It was just about finding that consistency,” she says.

Starting No. 27 in her first race final season – the Beaver Creek downhill – Macuga was shocked when she landed in fourth, as a result of she had made what she thought was a major mistake. The realization of such velocity regardless of it gave her a serious psychological increase. From that second, she began trusting her potential to push the restrict and combat for a clear, quick line. The consistency adopted.

“You don’t realize it until it’s achievable. Then it was kind of like a drive. I just kept working hard. I was like, I have always dreamed about this, then all of a sudden, it was like, OK, I just gotta go do it. Get in the gate and do it,” she says.

Special method

Visualization has been a key ingredient in Macuga’s recipe for fulfillment.

“Seeing yourself flying down the hill, you tell yourself, ‘I can do it.’ It drives you to the front of the boot and wanting to go faster,” she says. “A huge advantage to visualization – being able to see yourself ski a race – you basically already run it when you visualize. Every day I go out training, I’m going to use it.”

Macuga’s most essential ingredient for fulfillment? Having enjoyable. She needed to remind herself of that for a fast minute final season when she was feeling strain after going from her first World Cup victory to Cortina d’Ampezzo (website of this season’s Olympic races) and World Champs.

“That was a big learning experience because going into the next weekend, everyone was asking me if I was going to win again. I got really stressed about it, got sick, and I got to realize I just want to go have some fun,” she says. “Going into World Champs, I was like, alright. I just want to ski my best. I’ve got to have fun. Then, I’m on the podium. That was huge. I’m so glad that happened then.”

It’s a lesson she is taking into this season, together with the Olympics. She desires to maintain her snowboarding free, highly effective, and fearless—the identical mindset that helped her break into the game’s elite final winter.

The enjoyable parade

“Of course, it’s going to be competitive,” she says of constructing the U.S. Olympic group. “But I’m just out there doing my own thing. As long as I have fun, I’ll go where I want to go.”

In case anybody’s questioning concerning the bucket hats, Macuga’s acquired 46 in her assortment. She purchased her first in 2019 and folks saved giving them to her, together with a police officer at World Champs, suggesting she put on it the following day. She did. Now the hats are a part of her id on the Stifel U.S. Ski Team, and a part of what retains her grounded.

That model, particularly because it coincides along with her function on the U.S. Team, is nice vibes.

“I’m kind of there for keeping the team spirits high,” she says. “I’m not the team leader yet. It’s something I’m gonna work on in the future. But for now, just bringing that positive vibe everywhere, it’s hard sometimes, but needed. So, that’s my job. I carry all the games and always have a smile on my face.”