(Reuters) – Ryan Cochran-Siegle ended a long U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
