Ryan Cochran-Siegle arrived in Bormio feeling loose. Much of the Alpine skiing attention was focused elsewhere: 

On Mikaela Shiffrin, who hoped to translate her World Cup dominance into Olympic hardware. On Marco Odermatt, a superstar Swiss skier with the legitimate potential to take home three, even four medals. On Lindsey Vonn and her heroic attempt to compete in the women’s downhill, despite a torn ACL.

Outside expectations for RCS at the 2026 Winter Olympics were similar to when he stunned the world and earned silver at the 2022 Beijing Games. Present, but relatively low.

The biggest difference this time around, though, was that he wasn’t putting pressure on himself.

“Experiencing an Olympic medal, you kind of learn that it isn’t the answer to all of life’s happiness,” he told NBC Sports in January. “But also going into this Olympics and being like, I’ve already achieved this important piece of my career, now I have nothing to lose. I have so much freedom in this next one.”

The Burlington, Vermont, native planned to use that freedom to his advantage to cross another goal off his career bucket list: winning Olympic downhill gold.

He would have the opportunity to do just that at a course where he picked up his lone World Cup victory in 2019 — the Stelvio Ski Centre. And, unlike Beijing, he would do so with his loved ones in the stands, including his mom Barbara Cochran — the 1972 Sapporo Olympics slalom gold medalist — his fiancé Jessie, and other friends from home.

The cherry on top of this Olympic-sized sundae? RCS’ beloved New England Patriots were finally back in the Super Bowl. He wouldn’t be able to watch the game live given the time difference and his busy competition schedule, but he’d sleep in his Drake Maye jersey for good luck. 

Cochran-Siegle’s week was shaping up to be legendary. All was right in Bormio when his face hit the pillow on Friday night (before the men’s downhill).

Then, Saturday hit like a freight train.

He woke up to his alarm at 6:15 a.m. ET, as he normally does before a race. Immediately, he noticed that something was off.

“I felt like I was nervous is kind of the only way I can describe it,” the 33-year-old recalled. “Usually I’m totally fine [on race day]. I don’t get nervous.”

Eating breakfast was a struggle. It’s typically a big pile of eggs, toast and butter, cereal and yogurt. He couldn’t make it through half of his cereal. He felt nauseous, but carried on. 

The rickety, 10-minute gondola ride to the top of the Stelvio mountain for a raceday prerun didn’t help matters.

As NBC Sports analyst and multi-time gold medalist Ted Ligety phrased it on a later broadcast, Ryan proceeded to “redecorate the gondola.”

He felt better, but not great, and noticed that the power in his legs was low as he skied down the piste. When he made it back up to hospitality, it was the bathroom’s turn for redecorating. A "profuse" redecoration. Five profuse redecorations.

Cochran-Siegle was able to muster the strength to do one more pre-race free run at a casual pace (he usually does three at high intensity). 

It was downhill time. The moment he’d been waiting four years for, but that his body decided to fight back hard against. 

Fortunately, his adrenaline kicked in.

"When I was in the start, I was like, I do feel better. Like, I do think I could do this," he explained. "So I had full belief, but it was more when I was skiing that I wasn't really generating power. I definitely lost a lot of strength through the run way earlier than you would expect. So that was a challenge."

He came in 18th.

"I still finished, but obviously I was emotionally disappointed and definitely down."

It wasn’t fair. Dealing with (what he believed to be) food poisoning at the worst possible time. Not being able to attack full tilt. Squandering the momentum that had brought him two downhill podium finishes during the 2025-26 World Cup season. Likely needing to relinquish his spot in Monday’s team combined since two other Americans — Kyle Negomir and Bryce Bennett — finished faster.

Of course, he was also still sick. As soon as he got back to his hotel room, he laid in his bed until the next morning. He took it easy and fought any temptation to stay up for the Super Bowl.

Monday brought with it the disappointment of watching Pats highlights (without spoilers) and quickly realizing the outcome. It wasn’t as brutal as 2007 when the Giants slayed the 16-0 Patriots, but it still hurt. Physically though, he hurt less and felt good enough to ski. On Tuesday, he was at about 90 percent and used much of his waking hours hydrating.

After a long 96 hours of sickness and low energy, Cochran-Siegle was almost back to his normal self. Just in time for the super-G. And he received a little extra motivation from an unexpected source.

“I wanted to bring some hardware to Vermont, who's been having a pretty good Olympics,” the Burlington native said. “Ben Ogden in cross country, Paula Moltzan [in the team combined]. I was super psyched when they both won medals, but a little bit of me was jealous.

“I was like, shoot, it’d be cool to be a part of that.”

He got his wish. Ryan would reach the finish line faster than all of his opponents except for one (Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen, who collected a historic three gold medals at the 2026 Games). 

It was yet another “fortuitous” Olympic medal for RCS, and he accomplished the feat in a discipline in which he hadn’t reached a podium since the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Still, you can’t help but wonder: If Ryan’s goal coming in was downhill gold, and he left with super-G silver, just how satisfied was he with the result?

“The downhill didn’t go my way. Going through that process of disappointment I feel like as an athlete is really healthy,” he explained. “I wanted it, it didn't happen. But for the super-G to turn out the way it did, it's nice to leave the Games with a different memory than probably 90 percent of my week here.”

AKA the sick part.

“Winning a medal is enough," he affirmed. "It’s a huge accomplishment for a skier like myself. The downhill, I definitely wish I could get that run back, but overall, I’m very pleased.”

With the runner-up finish, Cochran-Siegle joined an elite group of American Alpine skiers to earn multiple Olympic medals, which includes Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller, Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn, to name a few. 

Ryan is in the midst of the best skiing of his career, and the countdown clock to the 2030 French Alps Games has officially begun.

“Four years is a long way away, especially as a 33 going on 34-year-old,” he said with a smile. “Having experiences like this, though, it does build that belief in yourself. But this time around, I was also like I don't know if I'll have another one. So definitely embracing that and just fully embodying the Olympic spirit.

"Obviously, if I'm skiing fast and am still competitive, then I'd love to [compete in 2030]. Time will tell.”