BORMIO, Italy — The top three finishers in Wednesday’s men’s Olympic super-G featured another Swiss sandwich. Franjo von Allmen, 24, claimed his third gold medal in three events. His teammate Marco Odermatt, 28, captured bronze, his second medal of the Games. And in the middle was American Ryan Cochran-Siegle, 33, savoring his second consecutive Olympic super-G silver.
Afterward, all three remained humble.
After finishing 0.13 seconds behind von Allmen, Cochran-Siegle said the silver was “definitely unexpected.
“I’m happy, a little overwhelmed. I absolutely wanted to run early today. I was lucky with Bib 3. But if I were to go back up there and try to do it again, I probably wouldn’t be able to replicate it. I was not expecting to stay on the podium.”
Compared to his super G silver four years ago, Cochran-Siegle said, “in Beijing and today, there was an element of not expecting it, and it really helps to key in on the more important thing: the athletics of it. A lot of ski racers come here with fear. These Olympics have shown how beautiful this slope can be.”
Cochran-Siegle had also been buoyed by his fellow U.S. Ski Team teammates.
“Their performances instilled belief in myself,” he said.
He singled out Breezy Johnson’s downhill gold as “an incredible achievement,” Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles’ team combined bronze and “seeing their joy,” and Ben Ogden capturing silver in the men’s Nordic sprint on Tuesday — the first Olympic medal for a U.S. man in cross-country skiing in 54 years.
“He’s another fellow Vermonter,” Cochran-Siegle said of Ogden. “That inspiration was really key today.”
But he had no plans to blow up their phones.
“If you win an Olympic medal you get an absurd amount of messages,” he said. Instead, he was looking forward to in-person celebrations after a disappointing 18th-place downhill finish on Saturday.
On downhill day, he said, “I was dealing with a stomach bug. I threw up in the gondola. I threw up again in the bathroom two hours before the start. I tried to ski my hardest but definitely didn’t have it in my legs.”
“The next day I started feeling better. Yesterday I was maybe 90%. I woke up feeling a lot better this morning. Just having energy in my legs was giving me confidence.”
Cochran-Siegle is the only man on the U.S. Ski Team to reach a World Cup podium this season, doing so twice in downhill. The son of 1972 Sapporo Olympic slalom gold medalist Barbara Ann Cochran, he comes from what is widely considered the First Family of Alpine skiing in the United States. Barbara Ann Cochran was in the finish area for Wednesday’s race.
Von Allmen Completes the Sweep
As for von Allmen, who’s now had a perfect Olympics — sweeping gold in downhill, team combined and now super-G — and just tied the record for the most men’s Alpine gold medals in a single Olympic Games?
Cochran-Siegle showed full respect.
“He’s unbelievable,” he said. “Such an awesome guy, such a fun skier to watch — and to learn from, too. He’s got a lot of hardware around his neck, but I think the reason for that is that he’s having so much fun. The legend status he’s built this week is phenomenal.”
Von Allmen hardly sees himself that way, however — at least not yet.
“It sounds stupid,” von Allmen said, “but I’m not really interested in what’s on the paper. I’m really trying to enjoy the Olympics here. Maybe in a few years it will be important, but for now, it isn’t really.”
Wednesday’s super-G gold also came as a bit of a shock, von Allmen said.
“I was absolutely not expecting that. I was sure that my time of 1 minute, 25.32 seconds wasn’t enough for the podium. I’m pretty sure you can ski faster down here. I maybe had a little bit of luck with the bib No. 7 and the snow, which was getting a bit slower.”
“At the moment, I can’t fully grasp what these medals really mean,” he added, “or what they mean for my future, but as I always said, I’ll remain identical to who I am whether I win a medal or not. I expect my life will continue on similar lines as it is right now.”
Odermatt Turns to Giant Slalom
Meanwhile, Odermatt, the reigning world champion in super-G and pre-race favorite, said, “It’s great to have another medal,” referring to his silver-medal tie in the team combined. “But sure, the big goal was to win gold. I wasn’t fast enough again. I knew where I made two or three little mistakes where I could probably win time against these guys, but my approach for this race was good. I was more free, more myself than in the downhill.”
Odermatt was already looking ahead to Saturday’s giant slalom.
“It’s my last Olympic race,” he said. “I will obviously give it all for the gold medal. We’ll see how much energy will remain. But I feel pretty good. I’m the only one who will have two Milano Cortina medals at the start area, and also a gold from the last Olympic Games. I have nothing to lose.”
About the Author: Aimee Berg
