Macuga, Soar Podium at Moguls World Cup Finals
After a month-long hiatus from World Cup competition, the Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team moguls athletes shined in sunny Almaty, Kazakhstan in today’s single moguls World Cup finals. Alli Macuga earned her first career moguls podium in second place and Hannah Soar was third.
It was a picture-perfect day in Almaty, known as a hub for freestyle skiing in Central Asia. At over 9,000 feet of elevation at the start, this is the highest start of any World Cup moguls event on the circuit.
The U.S. had a great showing in the qualification round, where all seven women and four men advanced to finals. In finals, Jaelin Kauf, Alli Macuga, Olivia Giaccio and Hannah Soar put down solid runs to move on to the super final round of six. Right on the bubble was Kasey Hogg who is coming off her recent NorAm Cup overall win, finishing eighth, followed by Liz Lemley in ninth and Tess Johnson in 14th.
On the men’s side, Landon Wendler and Cole McDonald skied well but did not have enough to move on to the super finals against tough competition, finishing seventh and ninth, respectively. Dylan Walczyk finished 14th and Nick Page finished 15th after gaining too much speed in the mid-section and skiing out. Dylan Marcellini finished 24th outside of finals.
It was a tight competition in the women’s super finals where three U.S. athletes held on to podium positions until the final athlete, World Cup overall moguls Crystal Globe winner Jakara Anthony. With her win today, Anthony broke U.S. moguls legend Hannah Kearney’s record for most World Cup wins in a single season, earning victory number 13.
Macuga set a new personal best by finishing second, earning her first World Cup individual moguls podium. Macuga, the 2022-23 season FIS Rookie of the Year, has had an incredible 2023-24, earning her first career podium earlier this season in the Alpe d’Huez dual moguls. Right behind Macuga was Soar in third, her third podium of the season. Just off the podium was Kauf in fourth followed by Giaccio in sixth.
"I’ve been working a lot on pushing myself on all aspects of mogul skiing and especially with my jumps and skiing out of them. I’ve been trying to put everything together this season and I still have lots to learn, but I’ve been pushing myself a lot and trying new things with my skiing," said Macuga. "I’m beyond ecstatic to get my first singles World Cup podium, let alone a second place! Especially alongside my teammate Hannah. [Moving forward] I want to keep the momentum going for the rest of the season and, as always, just have fun!"
The team competes Saturday in one of two remaining dual moguls events of the season. Watch the action live on March 8 at 3:30 a.m. ET on skiandsnowboard.live.
