4 weeks until Olympics, 4 Park City skiers on injury list

Park City's Katie Hensien in her blue Stifel US Ski Team with Back-to-Snow-Coach Ian Garner at Deer Valley Resort. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — The “Back-to-Snow-Coach” for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team is staying busy this month assisting at least four athletes from Park City as they wrap up a four-year Olympic cycle with the goal to get to February’s 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

Stephen Schumann, a 2022 Beijing Olympian from the Park City Ski & Snowboard Team competes in the discipline of Nordic combined. He’s honed his craft at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP). While ski jumping at the National Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. this autumn, he crashed and suffered a lower limb injury. Biding his time, Schumann makes the most of his sudden status by giving back to his community by coaching developing athletes traveling to Colorado at the UOP in his hometown of Park City.

Cole McDonald, a 2022 Beijing Olympian and member of the Wasatch Freestyle Team, competes in moguls and trained at Deer Valley Resort. After suffering a lower-limb injury early this winter, McDonald spent weeks rehabbing and training in Park City. He returned to World Cup competition over the holiday break, bump-skiing on the international stage in New Hampshire.

Katie Hensien, a 2022 Beijing Olympian from the Romark Ski Team competes in the discipline of  Alpine – technical. She’s honed her craft at Park City Mountain. While training in Finland for the World Cup earlier this winter, she straddled a gate, crashed, and suffered as lower limb injury. TownLift took a chairlift ride with Hensien as she was training with her eye on the prize, her goal to fully get back to world-class competition level over the holiday break at Deer Valley in her hometown of Park City.

Lauren Macuga, a 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic hopeful from the Park City Ski & Snowboard Team, competes in the discipline of Alpine – speed. She’s honed her craft at Park City Mountain. While training in Colorado for the World Cup earlier this winter, she crashed and suffered a lower limb injury. While in recovery, she’s volunteering with the Youth Sports Alliance nonprofit in her home town of Park City. Don’t take it from TownLift that she was a future Olympian, take it from the IOC, the USOPC, and NBC, all entities which had her as a front-facing, fresh-face of the Games in pre-Olympic global marketing campaigns.

On said chairlift, Hensien told TownLift, “Injuries happen to pretty much all of us on the team at one time or another, it’s certainly not ideal though for them to happen in the most crucial point in an Olympic cycle.” The Back-to-Snow-Coach, Ian Garner, has had all four of those names on his recent roster.

Headquartered in Park City, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s brick-and-mortar facility is titled the USANA Center of Excellence or the “COE” as it’s affectionately and colloquially known. Personifying the proverb “teamwork makes the dream work,” the pipeline of professionals includes Intermountain Health’s Park City Hospital, which is located steps away from the COE where Dr. Max Testa works.

In Italy, Testa grew up skiing the same Cortina hill he strives to get these athletes onto to now. He often hands athletes off to the COE work-out facility trainer Andrew Libs, before handing off athletes to Garner, who then can give the go-ahead to return to the on-snow coaching staff, some of whom themselves are locating luggage for Italy.

With mere days remaining until the list is revealed of who has qualified to represent the USA at the Winter Olympics, everyone is doing their best to stay in the game.