At a small Vermont ski slope, family and community gather to cheer for local Olympian Ryan Cochran-Siegle
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“I’m kind of nervous,” said Barbara Ann, who was watching the downhill race from Vermont so she could help care for grandchildren. She was planning to fly to Italy later Saturday to catch her son’s Super-G run next week.
Founded in 1961, Cochran’s Ski Area is about as far from the glamour and majesty of the Alps as you can get. It started out as little more than a backyard rope-tow on a modest hill, and to this day maintains its focus as a hub for local children. It’s a place where generations have taken their first turns on skis on the Mighty Mite beginner slope and later sped down the Cochran’s race course, chasing Olympic dreams.
On weekday afternoons, buses jumble into the potholed parking lot to dump loads of kids from local schools. And most winter weekends, families head into the lodge for dinner and don their skis for Friday Night Lights.
Each time a Cochran queues under the Olympic rings, regardless of the early hour, the extended family tries to gather in this rambling one-story lodge, painted in the ubiquitous red-barn color of Vermont.
Former Olympic skier Jimmy Cochran, now general manager of Cochran’s Ski Area, prepares for the watch party for his cousin, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who competed Saturday in the men’s downhill race.Paul Heintz/Globe staff
“I’m excited for this community and this place — and Ryan,” said Jimmy Cochran, 44, flitting about a cramped kitchen behind the snack bar, making sure the coffee and hot chocolate were flowing. Now the general manager of the ski area, he looked out at a scene that was similar to two decades earlier, when he was the focus of the family’s support.
“I do remember knowing that everyone was here,” he recalled of his Olympic days. “It’s pretty special.”
When the invitation went out this time around, Ryan, 33, responded by email to family and friends, “Sorry I can’t make it, have a race to ski.”
For members of the family, such successes all trace back to the ski area’s founders, Mickey and Ginny Cochran.
“I don’t think we would have done what we did without my father as a coach,” said Barbara Ann’s sister, Marilyn Brown, as she showed off a photo of Mickey Cochran serving in World War II. “He wanted us to be the best — both my parents did. Be the best you can be, but not think you’re better than anybody else. Just ski down the hill fast.”
She would know. One of four siblings to compete for the US in the Olympics, Marilyn Brown won a World Cup title in giant slalom and competed in the same Sapporo Olympics where her sister won gold.
Now it was her nephew’s turn — again. Four years ago, Ryan Cochran-Siegle shocked the skiing world when he won a silver medal in Super-G at the winter games in Beijing. It was all the more impressive considering that a year earlier he had sustained a neck injury during a crash on the fearsome downhill course in Kitzbuhel.
Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond, Vt. in the pre-dawn hours on Saturday before favorite son Ryan Cochran-Siegle skied in the Olympic men’s downhill.Paul Heintz/Globe staff
As dawn was breaking in Vermont, the lodge was crowded with Cochrans, one of whom had an added reason to see Cochran-Siegle finish on the podium.
“If Ryan can get a medal, it would be the best birthday present I ever got,” said Marilyn Brown, who turned 76 on Saturday.
Her son, Roger Brown — Ryan’s cousin and a former US Ski Team member — surveyed the scene. Children, some still in pajamas, clustered around picnic tables with their parents, all eyes glued to a live stream of the Stelvio slopes projected on a wall of the lodge. Above them, vintage ski racing bibs worn by Cochrans past hung from a string of lights.
Beyond being the center of family life, the ski area continues to bring together the broader community, Roger said. Some of them even “feel ownership over Ryan,” the cousin quipped, as they’ve known him so long “they probably hair-dried his long underwear after he peed his pants.”
“What I think is really neat is that it blends family and community, where the lines are almost indistinguishable in a lot of ways,” Roger said.
As Ryan’s run approached, the din inside the lodge quieted, the lights went low, and all eyes turned toward the live stream.
Barbara Ann sat on a bench in the front row, surrounded by kids holding signs that, together, read, “Go, Ryan.”
As her son pushed down the slope, Barbara Ann rubbed her hands together and took deep breaths. “Come on,” she whispered.
Vermont native Ryan Cochran-Siegle of Team United States goes airborne in the Men’s Downhill race at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Bormio, Italy.Dustin Satloff/Getty
The energy in the room dissipated as it became clear that Ryan wouldn’t make the podium, but the crowd cheered and Barbara Ann grinned when an announcer mentioned her own Olympic exploits.
Ryan would come in 18th place, two seconds behind gold medal winner Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland.
“I just hope that he enjoys the experience,” Barbara Ann said when the race was over. “That he can find the joy in participating.”
She considered what her father, Mickey Cochran, would say to her when she’d focus too much on the outcome of a race.
“He’d say, ‘Concentrate on the skills and let the results take care of themselves,’” she recalled.
Across the room, family and community members launched into a round of “Happy Birthday to You” for Marilyn. She raised her arms in the air, removed her glasses and wiped away tears.
Outside the lodge, lights on the ski slopes illuminated falling snow. A pair of kids wandered up a trail, throwing snowballs at one another. And another ski day was just beginning.
Paul Heintz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @paulheintz.
