MEN Ryan Cochran-Siegle
JUNIOR ALPINE SKIER OF THE YEAR
Ryan Cochran-Siegle won this award last year, too. And he
was way better this season.
Cochran-Siegle, son of Olympic gold medalist Barbara Co-
chran, got his first five World Cup starts this season, and he
scored in two of them, including a 29th-place result at Beaver
Creek.
“I finished last season on a pretty good note and kind of car-
ried it through,” he said from Roccaraso, Italy, after locking
down his second gold medal of the World Junior Champion-
ships. “After Beaver Creek I knew I was skiing well and just
kept it going. ... I definitely had some bad days here and there,
but knowing that you just try to get better from your mistakes.
... I like to free ski a lot and I think that helps. Being on snow a
ton, you learn the right motions.”
Those World Junior gold medals, scored in horrible condi-
tions, left him, he said, “with a ton of energy,” and he used
that to head back home and chase down some NorAm points,
solidifying his shots at next year’s World Cup.
He collected four NorAm wins over the season and seven
podiums to finish second overall, first in downhill and first in
super G for the second-straight season. For good measure, he
made the top 10 in the final slalom standings as well.
Cochran-Siegle was also the top junior at the U.S. National
Championships, earning junior honors in combined and super
G. He placed as the second-best junior in GS by a few hun-
dredths of a second. He was also the top U.S. finisher of any
age in the championship downhill held in February.
Pressure, it seems, does not bother him. “My mom works with
kids in dealing with pressure,” he said, “and she has always
helped me out with that. I try to make sure I’m having fun.”
