Sam Macuga is an expert at finding balance.

The 24-year-old competes in ski jumping, an incredibly technical sport which requires perfect form through every phase of the jump. Not only does it demand jumpers consider multiple factors at once so as to increase aerodynamics — body position, ski angles, wind factor, etc. — but also immense core strength, as jumpers have to remain rigid and stable as they soar through the air. Balance is such a pivotal skill, in fact, that ski jumpers even can be classified by the location of their balance point in their foot.

But on top of managing all the factors that play into making the perfect jump, Macuga studies electrical engineering at Dartmouth University. She’s also in a sorority.

“I’ve always been like, I don’t want to choose between the two,” Macuga told NBCOlympics.com at the USOPC Team USA Media Summit in October. “I want to give ski jumping everything I have. I want to give school everything I have.”

Macuga takes advantage of Dartmouth’s D-Plan, a program designed to afford students flexibility when constructing their academic plan. Under the system, athletes freely can structure their education around their competition seasons, as long as they meet a few requirements. For Macuga, this means taking classes only in the spring quarter. 

Typically, athletes put together a 12-year-long academic plan using the D-Plan program. Because Macuga entered college during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was able to complete her first five terms of classes online, allowing her to study on the road during competition season and complete two bachelor’s degrees — a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science —  in eight years instead.

According to Macuga, there are tons of athletes, mostly skiers, who choose Dartmouth specifically for that flexibility. American Alpine skier AJ Hurt is on the same timeline as Macuga.

It’s a long time to be in an undergraduate program; Macuga will be 25 years old when she graduates. Hitting the books again after nine months off every year always is a tricky transition mentally. It also poses challenges socially, as Macuga’s only chances to make friends happen in the spring quarter, and she watches friends graduate every year.

But school always has been important to her, and her age — and the wisdom and maturity that comes with it — takes some of the pressure and anxiety out of things like difficult assignments, conversations with professors, and meeting new people.

“[AJ] and I always talk about how the older you get, the easier campus life is. Classes are still hard, and it’s still a lot, but I don’t feel overwhelmed by everything,” Macuga said. “It’s more fun every time we go back because I feel like I’m getting more out of it.”

In an attempt to ease that transition every spring, she joined the Kappa Delta sorority. Even though she misses many of the big events that happen throughout the year, like rush season and fall formal, it gives her a circle to come back to every spring, making her campus life a little less lonely.

“Being in a sorority is really nice because it’s a way to meet these younger girls [on campus] and hang out with them, and I don’t have to go out there and be like, ‘Hi, I’m Sam, I’m 24, and I feel really awkward being here!” Macuga said. “It’s just like, ‘Oh my god, this is so fun! We’re all KDs together!'”

Plus, it gives her another opportunity to surround herself with strong women. As a woman ski jumper and a woman in STEM, the inclusion of women in spaces historically commanded by men is incredibly important to her.

Women’s ski jumping was left off the World Cup circuit until the 2011-12 season. It only became an Olympic sport in 2014 (American Sarah Hendrickson was the first woman to jump), and until this year, the women’s competition only consisted of one event, the normal hill. In Milan Cortina, the program also will include a large hill event for women, though the men still have one more event than the women in the super team.

Macuga has witnessed the push to put women in labs and on the ski jump, and now, she gets to make that push herself.

“I grew up with the girls, the women who pioneered getting ski jumping into the Olympics. They were my role models, they coached me. Now, being a part of it — we’re still voting on trying to get more ski flying [competitions], get equal prize money, get equal events, and every year, we’re getting closer,” Macuga said. “It’s really nice to meet people on campus who are really passionate about [being a woman in STEM] and see what they’re doing and contribute while I can for the 10 weeks I’m there.”

The ability to juggle so many things at once runs in her blood. Macuga is the oldest of four siblings, all of whom compete in different ski disciplines on the international level: 23-year-old Lauren, an Alpine skier; 22-year-old Alli, who competes in moguls; and 20-year-old Daniel, an up-and-comer in the Alpine world.

As any parent of multiple children can attest, it takes a special skill to keep track of each kid’s schedule. For the Macugas, who constantly are spread out across the world for different competitions, that requires a detailed, color-coded, highly-protected spreadsheet their mother dubbed “the Macuga calendar.”

“The infamous spreadsheet — that is sacred ground. We don’t touch that,” Sam Macuga said. “[We] probably can’t even find it. The spreadsheet is our mom’s domain.”

The Macuga siblings rarely are in the same place — or even the same time zone — at the same time. As if to predict their future hyper-mobile lifestyles, each sibling even was born in a different state: Sam in California, Lauren in Michigan, Alli in Washington and Daniel in Texas. 

But in February, there’s a chance of a family reunion in Italy; the three sisters all are in contention to make the U.S. Olympic rosters in their respective sports. Last season, Lauren won her first World Cup race. Alli raced to two podium finishes during last year’s World Cup circuit. Sam is one of the top jumpers on a U.S. team which is attempting to earn four Olympic quota spots for the women’s competition in Milan Cortina  — a feat the country never has accomplished.

The United States ski jumping team has seen little success on the Olympic level. The last time an American jumper earned a medal in either the men’s or women’s contest was in 1924, the inaugural Winter Games. In Beijing, just one woman, Anna Hoffman, qualified — and that was only after the International Ski and Snowboard Federation reallocated the quota spots leftover from the first distribution.

Ski jumping is unique in that, despite its status as a winter sport, there exists a summertime qualification event: the Grand Prix. The American team entered this season’s circuit hopeful, having seen dramatically improved results since the Beijing Games thanks to a training partnership with the Norwegian national team. 

This summer didn’t return the results Macuga and the team had hoped for, but there’s still time. The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup begins Nov. 21, giving the women several more chances to rack up points and earn those quota spots.

Needless to say, Macuga has been feeling the weight of earning that fourth quota spot — not to mention making her first Olympic roster.

“It’s been a really tough summer because I just haven’t been competing how I wanted to, and it was getting to the point where I was just finishing the competition, immediately going out and leaving the athlete area, and just breaking down into tears because … everybody’s expecting me to get the spot for the team. Oh my god, it’s unimaginable pressure,” Macuga said. “We’re not even trying to qualify someone for the spot. We’re just trying to have it.”

But balance — be it physical, mental, academic, or otherwise — is Macuga’s speciality. Sometimes, it takes a phone call to bubbly Lauren or blunt Alli to remind her of that, but it’s a skill that keeps her grounded in a life that keeps her up in the air (at times, literally).

“It’s about having fun. It doesn’t end here. You don’t need to quit just because other people are telling you you’re not good enough right now,” Macuga said, remembering a piece of advice Alli gave her this summer. “I still have the means to keep ski jumping. Even if it isn’t necessarily my year — I want it to be, but even if it isn’t, [there are] more years, there’s more time.”