VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

(Photo Credit: USOC)

Richmond

Alpine Skiing, Inducted 2013

One of the famous skiing Cochran family out of Richmond, Barbara Ann Cochran was a national and international slalom champion throughout her career. She began to ski at a young age- four years old and captured her first national title at the 1966 Junior Nationals at age 16. Became a member of the U.S. National Team in 1967 and picked up a sixth place finish in a FIS World Cup slalom event at Heavenly Valley in 1968. 

A mainstay on the World Cup circuit the next five years, she won her first World Cup slalom event in 1970 at Maribor, Slovenia and then came in second in the slalom at the FIS World Championships in Val Gardena. She dominated the event in 1971 with two World Cup wins among five podium finishes. 

Cochran won the gold medal at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics becoming the first American in 20 years to strike gold at the Olympics. The lone previous winner was Andrea Mead Lawrence of Rutland, an inaugural VSHOF Inductee in 2012.

Among her many honors, Cochran won the USSA's 1972 Beck International Award as the top American skier in international competition and the state athlete of the year by the Vermont Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. She was named to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1976, the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2004. 

In 1999, Sports Illustrated selected Cochran ninth in its list of the Top 50 Vermont athletes of the 20th Century.

Her son Ryan Cochran-Siegle is a member of the U.S. National Ski Team and skied in the 2018 Olympics.