Park City’s peaks have always cultivated and lured a bevy of established, world-class winter athletes, but as we turn our attention to the next decade and the beacon that will be Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 Winter Olympic Games, a new wave of local talent is also focused on the road to come. From acing a triple cork in the halfpipe and crushing moguls to sighting a biathlon rifle and breaking through the skate pack, these rising stars are redefining winter competition.
Meet just a few of the inspiring athletes who are turning heads, pushing boundaries and aiming big. And don’t forget to bust out those cow bells as these ambitious athletes prepare to make their Olympic dreams real in 2026 and beyond.
Macuga Family
You know the joke about the family that has nine kids so they can have their own baseball team? The Macugas have tried their best to corner the market on competitive winter sports. With four siblings all making their mark in disciplines like ski jumping, alpine skiing and moguls, “Team Macuga” goes beyond the average mountain recreationalists.
Meet Sam, Lauren, Alli, and Daniel. “We are all super competitive athletes,” says Sam. “But it’s nice that we all wound up in different sports. You should see us beat up on each other in Mario Cart or board games, but we channel all of our support into the things that really matter.”
Sam, the eldest, moved with her parents from California to Park City when she was seven years old. When Dan and Amy added her to the Youth Sports Alliance (YSA) after-school ski jumping program, Get Out and Play, she was hooked. Now 23, she’s earned a spot on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s Women’s Ski Jumping Team and is aiming for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. “Competitions are already counting for those Olympic quota spots so every one is important,” she says. “We want the whole team to qualify this time.”
As for 2034, Sam says 10 years is a long time to be a professional jumper but at 33 that could still be a possibility for her. “You can peak at any age so it’s fun to think about. A home Olympics would be the dream, but right now the focus is on the World Championships this winter.”
Born in Park City, Lauren began racing locally as a 7-year-old and made the U.S. Women’s Ski Team’s Development Team at just 16, competing in downhill and super-G. She then blazed her way to the 2022 World Juniors bronze medal. Two years later, at age 22, she earned her spot on the U.S. Ski Team’s A Team after a breakout year in super-G during the 2023-24 season.
Alli, the youngest of the three sisters, is a rising star in the moguls world. She made her World Cup mogul debut in the 2022-23 season and broke the top-10 tier four times. In 2024, she won the FIS Rookie of the Year award and finished ranking fifth in the world.
Nineteen-year-old Daniel is the only sibling not on the national team, but his love for speed will have him chasing Lauren’s stats soon enough.
Henry Townshend
Eighteen-year-old Henry Townshend landed a spot on the U.S. Freeski Rookie Slopestyle Team last season and proceeded to stomp the 2024 Youth Olympic Games, taking home the gold in men’s slopestyle. This season, Townshend is focused on securing a spot on the World Cup circuit rather than competing in Milano Cortina 2026.
“The Olympics in 2030 are more realistic for me,” he says. “And being in the hometown Olympics in 2034 would be a cool thing to make happen.” Townshend also credits his training to YSA and being the recipient of several of the organization’s Stein Eriksen Dare to Dream scholarships. “I’ve been so lucky. There have been so many opportunities given to us living here,” Townshend says.
Ashley Farquharson
The talented young luger has been crushing the Utah Olympic Park track ever since she chose the program through YSA in the sixth grade. “If I hadn’t grown up in Park City and with YSA, I never would have gotten involved with luge,” Farquharson says. Based in Park City, she competed in her first Olympics in 2022, finishing 12th, and is now determined to blaze a fast path on the 2026 luge track.
“I’m looking forward to 2026 and am in a good position. I want to podium more but also learn to balance my schoolwork with sliding,” says the 25-year-old, who is currently getting a business degree through Purdue Global University. While 2034 isn’t totally out of the question, she notes, “I have no idea if I’ll still be enjoying the sport by then, and that’s what it’s going to depend the most on.”
James Kanzler
Another beneficiary of the Youth Sports Alliance and coaching from local World Cup icons like Chris Haslock, James Kanzler has been walking onto podiums for freeskiing slopestyle since sixth grade. “There shouldn’t be much difference between competing and skiing,” he says. “Over time it all becomes a flow state of doing your best and having fun.”
Kanzler tried other winter sports through YSA’s Get Out and Play but found terrain parks were the outlet he needed. His focus this season is on improving and scoring some personal bests on the World Cup circuit. “It would be the ultimate goal to be in the 2034 Utah Olympics,” says the 21-year-old. “In the next couple of years, I will have to decide in my mind if that’s something I want to push for.”
Josie Johnson
Joining the Get Out and Play program in second grade launched a new interest for Josie Johnson. A senior this season at the local Winter Sports School, she competes on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s Women’s Ski Jumping Team with Sam Macuga. The 17-year-old brought home the silver medal at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea, becoming the first athlete from the United States to ever podium in the event at the Youth Games.
Nick Page
Representing the U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s freestyle moguls team at the Beijing Olympics, Nick Page has experience ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. In 2021, Nick became the FIS World Cup Rookie of the Year and soon after became the first American male to win a World Cup in six years, during the 2022-23 season in Ruka, Finland.
Ranked fifth in the world the past two seasons, Page sets realistic expectations. “I’m in a good trajectory,” he says. “The big overarching goal for this season is to get better every day and to come into each event with the goal to win. Ten years is a long way away but it will be here before you know it. … I’ll be 31 in 2034 and on the older end of the sport but still competitive.” Deer Valley Resort has been instrumental in his development as an athlete, and he says being there for the 2034 Winter Games would be “a Cinderella story.”
Cultivating Champions
Participating in Park City winter sports programs goes beyond just getting exercise. It boosts self-esteem, teaches teamwork and leadership, encourages positive energy and quite possibly forges a career path.
Youth Sports Alliance (YSA) grew in part from an alliance with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and an awareness of the importance of having a support system that encourages kids of all economic backgrounds to test drive winter sports in Summit County. YSA’s Get Out and Play is an early release program that introduces first- through fifth-graders to winter sports as well as golf, triathlon, indoor action sports and more. Later, Dare to Dream Scholarships help defray expenses for athletes training with YSA member teams.
In addition, the organization’s ACTiV8 joins local businesses, nonprofits, sports clubs and local schools to provide supervised sports and lifestyle activities for teens and tweens on Friday afternoons.
Winter Sports School (WSS) opened as a private school in 1994 and secured charter status from the Park City School District in 2014. The small college prep high school near Willow Creek Park offers winter athletes a way to work on academics while competing in winter sports. Athletes have winters off to compete and take classes from April to November. Aside from nominal fees, local ninth through 12th graders can attend for free, but space constraints mean the classes are small and the waitlist long.
