Skiing Cochrans

Cochran's  

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Location in the United States

Cochran's
Ski Area

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Location in Vermont

The Skiing Cochrans are a family of American alpine ski racers from Richmond, Vermont, a dominant force on the U.S. Ski Team in the late 1960s and early 1970s,^[1] and again in 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.^[2]

In 1961, parents Mickey and Ginny Cochran built a small ski area on their hillside property along the Winooski River in rural Vermont, the Cochrans' ski hill, where they trained their four children to be world-class ski racers. All four - Bob, Barbara Ann, Marilyn and Lindy - represented the U.S. in the Winter Olympics, with Barbara Ann winning the gold medal in slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.^[2] The next generation of Cochrans has continued the racing tradition, placing six family members on the U.S. Ski Team, while Cochran's Ski Area has grown into a local winter recreation area with three lifts and eight slopes attracting families from around Vermont.

Parents

• Gordon T. "Mickey" Cochran (1924–1998)
  1973-74 ski season and coach of the University of Vermont (UVM) Ski Team throughout the 1970s. With Mickey as alpine coach the UVM Ski Team won their first major winter carnivals, including Dartmouth in 1973, Middlebury and Williams, and began the longest regular season undefeated streak in NCAA history. Mickey died in March 1998 of congestive heart failure at the age of 74.^[3] The athletes he coached at UVM noted that he was all the man there is, and one of the greatest ski coaches ever. He was inducted into the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1972.^[4]
• Virginia Davis "Ginny" Cochran (1928–2005) - Matriarch of "The Skiing Cochrans" and long-time co-owner of Cochran's Ski Area with her husband, Mickey. In 1961, when Cochran's first opened, Ginny started the first after-school learn-to-ski program at the area at the request of the Richmond
  PTO. Since that time, thousands of schoolchildren and older skiers have learned to "Ski the Cochran Way", a great many taught by Ginny herself. In addition to raising four children who competed in the Winter Olympics, Ginny managed the ski area until her death in 2005 at age 76.^[5] She was posthumously honored with a resolution by the state legislature.^[6]

• 1969 World Cup giant slalom champion, 1970 World Championship bronze medalist in the combined, member of the 1972 US Olympic and 1974 World Championship teams, was three-time U.S. national champion. She won many awards including the Beck International Trophy as the top US international skier in 1971 and the Buddy Werner Award for sportsmanship in 1974. Marilyn was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1978.^[7] Her son Roger Brown was also a member of the U.S. Ski Team for two years after graduating with an engineering degree from Dartmouth ('04), where he was NCAA slalom champion in 2002 and a three-time All-American. He worked on Barack Obama's campaign in Georgia and Indiana during the 2008 election and was a Research Assistant for Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont until November 2010 when he joined his brother Douglas, and cousins Jimmy Cochran and Timmy Kelley, to work on their new enterprise, Slopeside Syrup. Her other son, Douglas Brown, attended St. Lawrence University, where he was captain of the ski team for two years and an academic All-American. He graduated in May 2009. He coached skiing and taught chemistry at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts during the 2009-2010 school year. He now is working on the sugarbush with his brother and cousins, laying lines to tap ultimately 20,000 trees on the land originally purchased by his Cochran grandparents. Roger's and Douglas' father, Christopher Brown, was an All-American skier at UVM, a member of the UVM Hall of Athletic Fame,^[8] is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.^[9]
• family and consumer science and was a ski coach and instructor at Cochran's Ski Area. She is also a motivational speaker, offering workshops and seminars and individual coaching to athletes, coaches, parents, and students. Her son Ryan Cochran-Siegle is a member of the U.S. Ski Team, and won the 2017 US National Super-G title^[12] as well as five junior National titles. He won gold medals in downhill and combined at the Alpine Jr. Championships in Italy in March 2012. [USSA News Bureau March 2 and 9, 2012] Barbara’s daughter Cate Hegarty coached skiing at Pat's Peak in New Hampshire, while attending the University of New Hampshire
  .
• 1973, he was the gold medalist in the Hahnenkamm combined, the first victory in that event by a U.S. ski racer.^[13][14] Later that season, he won a giant slalom at Heavenly Valley, California, the first World Cup GS victory by a U.S. male. He was a two-time U.S. national champion in slalom, giant slalom, and downhill, and went on to become a family practice physician in New Hampshire. Bob was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2010.^[15] His son Jimmy (b. 1981)^[16] was a member of the U.S. Olympic Teams in 2006 and 2010, raced in three World Championships (2005, 2007, and 2009), and captured four U.S. titles. Jimmy retired from ski racing in March 2012 following the U.S. Alpine Championships at Winter Park. His daughter Amy raced for the University of Vermont. His oldest son, Thomas Cochran, stopped skiing to begin a singing career and later became an emergency physician at the Keene Medical Center in Keene, N.H.^[17]
• Lindy Cochran Kelley (born 1953) - Member of the U.S. Ski Team (1970–78), University of Vermont Ski Team (1978–81), top American finisher 1976 Olympic slalom & giant Slalom in Innsbruck, Austria, U.S. national champion in slalom (1973) & giant slalom (1976), NCAA All-American (1979). Daughter Jessica Kelley and son Tim were both members of the U.S. Ski Team. Her other son Robby is also a U.S. Ski Team member.^[18] Robby and his older brother Tim are also two of the four founding members of Redneck Racing, an independent ski racing team ready to make waves on the 2014/2015 Nor-Am, Europa, and World Cup tours.