COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Lauren Macuga, a U.S. alpine speed prodigy and the reigning world bronze medalist in super-G, sustained an ACL tear in her right knee during a training run Friday morning that will vault her out of headlong pursuit for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics next year and sideline her for the entire World Cup season of 2025-26. The fall and ligament injury, confirmed by the Stifel U.S. Ski Team as well as Macuga on social media, will necessitate surgery and an extensive rehab that takes Team USA’s one of its more talented emerging medal threats out allegedly injured on a crash course at high speeds with an entrenched skip gate during practice rounds for Team USA trial races this January (minus the customary premier skier start prefixed to their names).
Fledgling Lauren Macuga was benched when she should be at her peak.
Teammates and coaches said the fall occurred during a portion of Lauren Macuga’s regular giant slalom training block as she geared up for the start of the speed tour in December. Macuga posted a video of the crash and a screenshot of her MRI, with the caption “it’s me, I’m what’s broken, RIP ACL, see you all next year,” as she lamented how “heartbreaking” it is to have her breakthrough winter derailed.
Team officials said in a statement reported by Ski Racing that Macuga was “a cornerstone of our women’s speed group” and that doctors will determine the surgical plan in the days ahead. They highlighted that, though Macuga is expected to make a full recovery, the injury will sideline her for this World Cup season and keep her off the start list for Milano-Cortina, where she had become a medal prospect in downhill and super-G for the United States.
What Lauren Macuga has done — and what she’s put on hold
The injury comes less than a year after Macuga secured her first World Cup victory, lolloping to an easy super-G win in St. Anton, Austria, on Jan. 12, 2025 — a surprising performance that announced her place among the world’s speed elite was now secure. She turned an attack-the-mountain run into a breakthrough victory as headliner, such as the St. Anton super-G win recap , which dubs her the youngest American World Cup speed race winner since Lindsey Vonn.
Lauren Macuga followed up that breakthrough by taking multiple podiums, including a career-first World Cup downhill second place in Kvitfjell, Norway, in March; her first downhill podium on the sport’s grandest stage came as she finished last year fourth in the downhill standings and sixth in super-G. Reports like her first World Cup downhill podium in Kvitfjell revealed just how quickly she has emerged as a week-in, week-out speed menace.
That winter surge extended into the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, where Lauren Macuga claimed super-G bronze and posted top-five results in the team combined and downhill, showcasing that she was a podium threat on the sport’s biggest stage. In their profile of her, however — just ahead of Beijing — NBC Olympics framed them as the foundation for a serious push toward Olympic medals in 2026.
Off the hill, Lauren Macuga is remembered for her go-with-the-flow attitude, an impressive collection of signature bucket hats, and a readiness to jump into ski racing’s fastest events early on, characteristics that coaches say helped her flourish on the U.S. Alpine A Team and inspire younger racers from Park City, Utah, where she grew up. Her long history with the program, documented in her U.S. Ski & Snowboard biography, had made her one of the faces of a deepening American women’s speed squad heading into this season.
Path back for Lauren Macuga, Team USA
For Team USA, Lauren Macuga’s ACL tear leads to an early reshuffling of Olympic plans. Coaches had previously been imagining a Milano-Cortina lineup featuring veterans like Johnson, with Macuga and other young speed specialists, perhaps including Lauren Macuga’s sisters , Sam and Alli, racing in separate disciplines, that could produce the kind of medal tally coaches are hoping for in this Olympics from the United States.
Instead, the attention is on Lauren Macuga’s health and the longer trajectory of her career. Standard ACL rehabs for elite alpine skiing can last closer to a year, and U.S. Ski Team officials have said they will focus on getting Macuga healthy for future World Cup seasons and the 2030 Olympic cycle rather than pushing a return. For a skier who only recently declared herself a legitimate world title contender, this setback delays — but does not preclude — the podium runs that had once made Milano-Cortina seem like the next logical step.
