Winter Olympics: Cochran-Siegle skis to medal 50 years after mom, China’s darling wins big air gold

Beijing, February 8

As Ryan Cochran-Siegle set off at around noon today for a super-G run that would earn a silver at the Beijing Games — the first Olympics Alpine medal for a US man since 2014 — it was around 11 pm Monday night back home in Starksboro, Vermont.

So his mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, grabbed a laptop and settled into bed in her pajamas to keep tabs on how the boy she put on skis at age 2 would fare.

Mom, you see, came from the “Skiing Cochrans” family of Olympians, and was the slalom champion at the 1972 Sapporo Games. She knows all about what it takes to succeed on this stage, all about what goes through a racer’s mind at the start, middle and end of a high-velocity trek down the glassy side of a mountain with history in the offing. “I felt pretty calm until a few people before him. Then I got those butterflies and started getting pretty nervous. I was yelling as he was going down, ‘Go, Ryan! Go, Ryan!’ I was loud. I woke my daughter up,” Cochran said with a chuckle during a telephone interview. interrupted occasionally so she could listen to what was being said about Ryan’s result. “And then came a ton of different emotions. Excitement. Nervousness. Proud of what he’s doing.”

China’s US gift

American-born Eileen Gu of China cranked out the first 1620 of her career on her final jump, stunning Tess Ledeux of France and earning the first of what she hopes will be three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in women’s freestyle big air today.

Nicknamed the “Snow Princess,” Gu is among the biggest local names in Beijing. She is a medal favorite in big air, slopestyle and halfpipe. Her first attempt at gold came down to the last round.

Ledeux is the only other woman to ever land a 1620 — 4 and 1/2 spins — in competition, and she stomped one out with a slight wobble on the landing in Round 1.

Gu hinted after qualifying Monday that she might be able to match Ledeux. With everything on the line, she did.

The 18-year-old from San Francisco shrieked when she landed the jump, then dropped to her knees when her score of 94.50 was announced.

Ledeux tried to improve on her second run in Round 3, coming into the jump backward for a switch 1440. She was shaky on the landing, though, clearing the way for Gu’s gold.

Gu has gotten heat from her birth country after turning down Team USA to compete for China at the Beijing Games. Gu’s mother is from China, and though she learned to ski in California, she says her goal is to be a role model for young girls in China who have not had many female athletes to admire. — AP

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