Lauren Macuga’s first World Cup victory – in a super-G where Lindsey Vonn impressed again in fourth place – was no surprise to those who saw the 22-year-old American’s rapidly improving results.
Macuga was nearly clear on a course that caught veterans like Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami, who made mistakes and knew upon crossing the finish line that their times would not hold.
Macuga won by 0.68 seconds on Sunday – a huge winning margin in super-G – ahead of Austria’s Stephanie Venier, with Brignone 0.92 in third. Olympic champion Gut-Behrami was back in fifth place with 1.26.
Vonn was 1.24 behind Macuga in the third race of her comeback at the age of 40, but no one was faster on the steep middle section of the course than the former Olympic champion. Macuga stood on the course and punched the air to greet her teammate’s run. Vonn smiled broadly and stretched her arms wide as the racecourse commentator praised her “incredible” run.
Thirty minutes earlier, Macuga had crossed the line and held a hand over her mouth in joy as she saw her leading time in the race. Macuga was installed in the leader’s box, wearing a stars and stripes bucket hat, to watch Vonn start a day after her impressive sixth-place finish in the downhill. Macuga had finished ninth in the descent on Saturday.
Vonn skied at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City in Macuga’s home state of Utah, five months before the U.S. team’s new star was even born: on the Fourth of July.
after newsletter promotion
Macuga is in her third full season on the World Cup tour and had six top-10 finishes before Sunday, including fourth in a downhill last month in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Her sisters are also on American teams: Sam Macuga is a ski jumper and Alli Macuga is a ski tycoon.