Jim Fennell: Cochran readying for world event

Jimmy Cochran may be an Olympic skier from New Hampshire, but he's not trying to be the next Bode Miller.

"He's in a league of his own," the 25-year-old Keene native said of Miller. "I just happen to be from the same state."

The only two Granite State skiers at the ongoing Alpine World Ski Championships have certainly taken distinct routes to Are, Sweden, for this two-week competition that some rank as a more prestigious event than the Olympics.

Miller, of course, is the brash-talking North Country superstar who burst onto the world scene as a teenager. He is a world champion, three-time Olympian and one of the most marketable athletes in the country.

COCHRAN

Cochran's journey to the top of the mountain has been much slower and is not yet complete.

He competed in his first world championships two years ago, made the Olympics for the first time last year in Torino, Italy, and still has plans to finish college.

"Then I'll have to go out and get a job," he said. "Bode will never have to worry about that."

Cochran may represent the United States in Wednesday's giant slalom and Saturday's slalom competitions, but he is still on the U.S. B team, just as he was two years ago in Bormio, Italy, when he finished 16th in the giant slalom at the world championships.

"That first year was somewhat of a surprise," said Cochran, a national champion in both of his specialties. "This year it's a little bit more pressure."

Maybe he won't be the next Bode Miller, but Cochran has a chance this week to firmly establish himself as one of the new guys ready to step in when Bode decides to retire.

He will try to do it in Are, not far from where he competed in his Europa Cup, the feeder system for the World Cup, three years ago.

"We were about five miles away," Cochran said. "I didn't do real well and it was dark every day."

Cochran has set a relatively modest goal for himself in the giant slalom, saying, "I just don't want to suck."

His sights are a little higher for the slalom competition, aiming for a top-10 finish. He was 12th in the slalom at Torino.

This week's races give him a chance to take two more steps toward establishing himself as one of the top 30 skiers in the world. He was ranked 67th overall before this week, 27th in the slalom and 41st in the GS.

"That's my biggest goal, especially in the slalom," Cochran said. "I'm on the cusp. It's a hard group to break into."

Cochran would seem to be a natural on this circuit when you consider his pedigree. His grandfather was the head coach of the U.S. ski team in 1974; his dad, Bob Cochran, was a nine-time national champion and a member of the 1972 Olympic team. Three aunts were also Olympic skiers, and his mother, Janet Schweitzer, is one of the all-time great track athletes at the University of Vermont.

But this wasn't always the plan. Seven years ago, Jimmy was just worried about beating his brother Tom and the Harrington boys, Sean and Ryan, down the hill at Pat's Peak as part of the Keene High School ski team.

His brother and sister may have seemed destined for greater things on the slopes.

Tom was a state high school champion before going off to the University of New Hampshire and deciding to concentrate on his academics. He's now in medical school. Amy was a great all-around athlete who ended up playing soccer and skiing at Vermont. She just got accepted into graduate school at Cornell.

It was Jimmy, his mother says, who had his total focus on skiing. She says he was the first one on the lift and the last one off. He was the kid who never wanted to come in for lunch.

He skipped his senior ski season at Keene to attend Mt. Mansfield, a private ski academy in Vermont. He went to Middlebury College for a year before transferring to Vermont.

It was at Vermont, racing against the country's elite skiers, where he first started to realize he could make the national team. He won silver in the slalom and bronze in the GS at the NCAA championships held that year at Dartmouth and made the national team in 2004, recording his first World Cup points a year later.

He was considered a more likely candidate to make the Olympic team in 2010, but went to Torino by grabbing the team's last spot in the slalom. He was no longer just the kid who came from that great ski family.

Cochran moved to Park City, Utah, last summer to use the national team's training facility and says he has been pushed like never before.

"You can't skip out when you're there, you can't cut corners," Cochran said.

"That's something I never felt I was serious enough at."

While some may shy away from the inevitable comparisons to his more famous New Hampshire teammate, Cochran says he loves talking about Miller, calling Bode a great teammate.

After this week, it may be Bode who will be talking about Cochran.

Sunday News staff writer Jim Fennell's e-mail address is: jfennell@unionleader.com.