Ryan Cochran-Siegle is carrying on his family’s legacy.
Cochran-Siegle, a former Westminster student, won the silver medal in the men’s super-G on Monday.
His time of 1:19.98 was just 0.04 seconds off of Matthias Mayer’s gold-medal winning time of 1:19.94.
Cochran-Siegle traversed the challenging alpine skiing course with power en route to bringing home the hardware.
“I think today, I was trying to bring a little bit more intensity, really charge and take advantage of the opportunity. It’s about trusting your skiing,” Cochran-Siegle said on the NBC broadcast.
His silver medal fulfilled a lifelong dream of medaling at the Olympics.
“Getting a medal is definitely a dream,” Cochran-Siegle said, with emotion in his voice.
Soon after crossing the finish line, Cochran-Siegle was FaceTiming his mom, Barbara, who won the gold medal in slalom at the 1972 Olympics.
Barbara Cochran joined the NBC broadcast and was beaming while talking about her son.
“I totally believed in him. I knew that he was capable of doing it,” she said. “I’m just so proud.”
Just a year ago, Cochran-Siegle crashed hard and had to have vertebrae surgery.
“365 days ago, I was walking out of a bed from neck surgery,” Cochran-Siegle said.
Now, he’s an Olympic medalist.
“Just never giving up on yourself,” Cochran-Siegle said.
How other athletes with Utah ties did in Monday’s medal events
Alpine Skiing — Women’s Giant Slalom
Kaitlyn Vesterstein (Estonia) — University of Utah (current Utah ski team) — 35th place out of 60 competitors.
Speedskating — Women’s 1500m
Brittany Bowe — Salt Lake City resident — 10th place out of 30 competitors.
Short Track — Men’s 1000m
Andrew Heo — University of Utah (current student) — fifth place overall, third place out of three competitors in Final B.
Freestyle Skiing — Women’s Big Air
Darian Stevens — University of Utah (current student) — 11th place out 12 competitors.