By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) -With their competitive instincts honed by a fearsome sibling rivalry, the Macuga sisters, a trio of rising American stars, are vying to compete in three separate disciplines at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February.
The eldest, 24-year-old Sam, has embraced the high-adrenaline demands of ski jumping, Lauren, 23, competes in alpine skiing and 22-year-old Alli was named 2023 FIS Rookie of the Year in moguls.
"We luck out that we are in different disciplines.
We are so competitive," said Lauren, who became the youngest world championships medallist in a speed event in 12 years with super-G bronze in February.
RIVALRY AND SUPPORT
Monopoly was previously banned from the household - the pieces "went flying," father Dan Macuga explained - while a game of spoons during the holidays once became so heated that one of the Macugas' cousins was flung into a Christmas tree.
"They used to be sledding in the backyard fighting over who went the furthest," their father recalled. "And you're like, 'We're sledding here, guys'."
The family infighting ends at the slopes, however, where all three are each other's biggest supporters, along with younger brother Dan, 20, who is also eyeing a future in alpine skiing.
"I couldn't imagine doing this journey without them and I think it's almost like an advantage over everyone else," said Sam, who first made the U.S. ski team in 2019.
"I get to have my siblings there with me for the ride and we're not even competing against each other. We're just wholeheartedly supporting each other."
Growing up in the winter sports paradise of Park City, Utah, their mother, Amy, kept a colour-coded spreadsheet to keep track of their competitions, a practice she continues as they compete across different countries and time zones.
"They fit their sport just in all sorts of ways, so it's really perfect. I mean, it did make for a lot of logistics to sort out," said Amy.
Those logistics will get more complicated if all three qualify for the Games, with their events scattered across three different cities in Northern Italy. The qualification period for all three sports ends in mid-January.
"We're gonna need two rental cars," said Amy.
They would not be the first siblings to appear in a Winter Games: Canada's three Dufour-Lapointe sisters competed in the women's moguls in 2014, with Justine and Chloe taking gold and silver, respectively.
That they compete in three different events, however, sets them apart.
"When we were younger, we'd talk about the Olympics and we're like, 'Oh, that's so cool watching it', but it was never like, 'Oh, I'm gonna go to the Olympics'," said Alli, who has two World Cup podium finishes.
"Then all of a sudden we're all like, wait, it's kind of realistic now for all of us."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, additional reporting by Hussein WaaileEditing by Toby Davis)
