DOB: 03/27/92
Hometown: Starksboro, VT
Home Mountain: Cochran’s Ski Area
Years skiing: 22
Sponsors: T2 Foundation, Rossignol, Shred Optics, Slytech Protection, Leki
Set up: Rossignol Skis and Boots, Look Bindings
Injuries: Torn ACL, Torn Lateral and Medial Meniscus, Torn Femural Cartilage, Broken 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Metacarpals, 2 Concussions
Career highlights: 2x World Junior Champion, 10th place Super Combined WC, 15th place Super G WC, 2013 and 2017 World Ski Championship Teams
Social media – Instagram: @rc.s
Last super stoke: My first World Cup Super G race back after 4 years due to injury, in Val d’Isére, France. I was starting way back with bib 61, so I didn’t have any expectations to do very well. Going through the finish line with such a wild run and seeing I was in 15th, my best World Cup finish at the time, was something else.
Last Bummer Wave: Breaking my hand in the middle of my first race season back after a year and a half off snow. It turned out to be not as disruptive as I was originally told, but still a buzz kill.
Most memorable day of skiing: This one morning skiing powder at Stowe with my friends and cousin back in High School. It wasn’t the best snow we’ve ever skied, but being together, skiing all over the mountain and sharing the moment with each other made it stick.
Most embarrassing moment: Faceplanting a backflip straight to east coast ice at my friends house.
Best travel destination: Val d’Isére, France
Something most people don’t know about me: I have a third nipple.
For me, skiing is… the balance between an escape and the pursuit of a better self.
Favorite trip: Traveling to Alyeska, Alaska for US Nationals as a kid with my mom and sister. It was my first big mountain experience out west, the weather and skiing was perfect all week, and my cousin Jimmy ended up taking home the GS and SL titles. I will never forget the butterflies in my stomach from the first time my uncles took me down the X-Mas chute there!
This year’s biggest challenge: Racing again with the big boys on the World Cup circuit.
This season’s best decision: Making it home for four and a half days from Europe for Christmas.
This season’s worst decision: Not being home enough.
What is WEND to you? A passionate company with an active lifestyle that creates quality products from the natural world.
Top Results:
2012 World Junior Downhill and Combined Champion, Roccaraso, Italy
15th 2013 World Ski Championships Super G, Schladming, Austria
10th Place World Cup Combined, Santa Catarina, Italy
15th Place World Cup SG, Val d’Isére, France
25th Place World Cup DH, Lake Louise, Canada
4 Top 30 World Cup SG Finishes
4 Top 30 World Cup GS Finishes
2014 Nor-Am Cup Overall Champion
“I grew up with my family in rural Vermont. Coming from the long line of “Skiing Cochran’s”, (my mom is an Olympic Gold Medalist) ski racing has been said to be in my blood. I think we all just grew up in an environment with a tremendous amount of support and love to succeed. I started skiing before I was 2 years old, and spent most of the winters at our families small ski area, Cochran’s Ski Area, in Richmond, Vermont. My mom has run the ski lessons program at Cochran’s for roughly the past century, so I was stuck over there skiing on the T-Bar and Ropetow whenever there was snow and I wasn’t in school, as a form of self regulated daycare. Naturally, this transcended into joining the ski club when I was old enough, and I’ve been ski racing ever since. I made the US Ski Team out of high school, and have been doing that for the past 7 years. I am also enrolled at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I occasionally take summer classes slowly working toward a college degree.” -RCS