Starksboro-raised Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Stratton-trained Jessie Diggins won Olympic skiing medals Tuesday at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
Cochran-Siegle, 29, scored silver in the alpine super-G almost 50 years to the day after his mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, snagged slalom gold at the 1972 competition in Sapporo, Japan.
Hours later, Diggins, 30, took bronze in cross-country’s individual sprint. She won gold in the 2018 women’s team sprint, but her latest race makes her the first U.S. woman to nab a solo Nordic cross-country medal and only the second American to do so after Vermonter Bill Koch captured silver in 1976.
Cochran-Siegle skied “a near perfect run,” according to Rutland writer Peggy Shinn, a reporter for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s website, TeamUSA.org.
“He crossed the finish line, took off his skis, looked at the camera and said, ‘What’s up, Vermont. I hope that holds,’” Shinn wrote in her story from China’s Yanqing National Alpine Center.
Cochran-Siegle’s time of 1 minute, 19.98 seconds was only four-hundredths of a second behind that of the winner, defending 2018 gold medalist Matthias Mayer of Austria.
“Part of me recognized that I was skiing well, and trusting that, and just fighting all the way to the finish,” Cochran-Siegle was quoted by Shinn after the race. “It’s definitely a special, special run.”
Cochran-Siegle was raised at his family’s namesake Richmond ski area, which his grandfather Mickey Cochran started by installing a rope tow in his backyard.
“Happy, relieved, a little bit of proud,” Cochran-Siegle said when asked about medaling like his mother. “Just really appreciating that I’m here and able to accomplish my childhood dream on a day like today. It’s a lot of really good and positive emotions.”
USA Today deemed Cochran-Siegle’s victory a “surprise” in part because the skier broke his neck in a downhill racing crash just a year ago.
“You dream of these moments,” he was quoted by Shinn. “You see it in your mind and at times you have to put it away because you have to just focus on the skiing. That was what I was doing today. … I think this was the best second place that I’ll ever get in my life.”
Viewers of NBC’s Today show watched Cochran-Siegle show off his medal and FaceTime with his mother when Diggins took the podium in her own event.
“It’s so special and so exciting,” Diggins went on to tell the program’s hosts. “I really felt the love and the cheering all the way from over here and it’s been overwhelming, but in the best way.”
Jonna Sundling of Sweden won gold by less than three seconds, while teammate Maja Dahlqvist took silver by a stride.
Many believed the individual sprint represented Diggins’ best chance to capture a medal this year, although she’s set to defend her title in the team sprint next week.
“To be honest, I actually wasn’t sure that I had definitely gotten the bronze, so I was a little bit scared to celebrate,” Diggins told NBC after she crossed the finish line.
The New York Times described the freestyle sprint course as “a furious, three-minute tear around a 1.5-kilometer loop on a course built into the side of a hill that includes a lung-busting climb, a dicey descent and a final burst down the flat straightaway to the finish.”
“I was just in a lot of pain,” Diggins told NBC. “It’s a really challenging course, but I love that. My biggest goal today was to just finish with nothing left. I’m so proud to say that I definitely did that.”
Find out how to watch the two dozen athletes with Vermont ties here.
