Ryan Cochran-Siegle ended a long US men’s alpine ski team drought on Tuesday by taking his first World Cup win in a super-G in the Italian resort of Bormio.
The 28-year-old, son of 1972 Olympic slalom gold medallist Barbara Cochran, beat Austrian Vincent Kriechmayer by 0.79 seconds down the Stelvio piste with Norwegian Adam Smiseth Sejersted third.
Norwegian Aleksander Aaamodt Kilde, second in the men’s overall World Cup standings, was fourth with French leader Alexis Pinturault 12th.
Cochran-Siegle’s victory, in his 101st World Cup race, came 10 days after his first World Cup podium – also on Italian snow – with a second place in a Val Gardena downhill.
“I think I got some confidence from Gardena, but also I’m just trying to focus on my skiing,” he had said after dominating downhill training at the weekend.
Cochran-Siegle is the first American male skier to win in Bormio since Bode Miller in a 2007 downhill and the first to win a super-G since Miller in 2006.
The US men’s team last won a World Cup race of any sort in December 2019 when Tommy Ford triumphed in a Beaver Creek giant slalom.
Tuesday’s super-G was postponed from Monday due to bad weather. A downhill follows on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Michelle Gisin on Tuesday became the first Swiss woman in nearly 19 years to win a World Cup Alpine skiing slalom when she finished first under the floodlights in Semmering, Austria.
The victory in the last women’s race of the year also ended a dominant run by American Mikaela Shiffrin and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who between them had won every World Cup slalom since January 2017 – a sequence of 28 races.
“It’s crazy. I broke the incredible run of two giants,” said Gisin.
Shiffrin had led after the first leg by 0.02 but Gisin, the 2018 Olympic combined gold medalist, went faster over the second run.
“I was really pushing on the second run and I didn’t handle that very well. I made some mistakes, but then again, I could have been out of the course,” said Shiffrin, who completes a calendar year without a slalom win for the first time since 2012.
Austria’s Katharina Liensberger finished second, 0.11 slower, with Shiffrin third for her 43rd podium in the last 46 slaloms.
The last Swiss woman to win a World Cup slalom was Marlies Oester in Berchtesgaden in January 2002.
Shiffrin last won a slalom exactly one year ago, which was also the last time she led a slalom after the opening run.
“Not sour. It was not a bad day,” said Shiffrin, who notched her 99th career World Cup podium. “I know I have faster or more stable skiing, but it’s a process, and I’m going step by step.”
