Q&A with combined champ Jimmy Cochran

On the tail of winning the 2008 U.S. national slalom title last Saturday, Jimmy Cochran turned in the 10th-fastest downhill run on Monday to win the national combined title. A tech specialist, the combined title is Cochran’s fifth national crown — two shy of his father’s seven national titles.
    From 1969-1974, Bobby Cochran won two slalom, two giant slalom, two downhill titles, and one combined. The elder Cochran also won the Hahnenkamm combined in 1973. Jimmy has never shown the same promise in the speed events as his father, who also won the NCAA downhill title in 1973. "He knows I’m a lost cause in downhill," Jimmy says about his dad.

ON THE TAIL of winning the 2008 U.S. national slalom title last Saturday, Jimmy Cochran turned in the 10th-fastest downhill run on Monday to win the national combined title. A tech specialist, Cochran’s downhill run was a crowd-pleaser. He finished in 1:11.06 and raised his arms in the finish corral as the crowd cheered. He was only 2.02 seconds behind downhill champion T.J. Lanning and just 0.17 seconds behind Tim Jitloff, who was his closest competition for the combined title.
    The combined title is Cochran’s fifth national crown — two shy of his father’s seven national titles. From 1969-1974, Bobby Cochran won two slalom, two giant slalom, two downhill titles, and one combined. The elder Cochran also won the Hahnenkamm combined in 1973. Jimmy has never shown the same promise in the speed events as his father, who also won the NCAA downhill title in 1973.
    Ski Racing caught up with Jimmy after the downhill at Sugarloaf on Monday.

Ski Racing: Why did you race downhill today?
Jimmy Cochran: For fun. For the combined. It’s good training for GS. Why do anything? It’s all ski racing. It’s all fun. It’s exciting to do well. For the thrill of competition.

SR: Did your dad give you any pointers (for racing downhill)?
JC: He knows I’m a lost cause in downhill.

SR: I hear you guys used to do the downhill at Cochran’s Ski Area. Doesn’t that prepare you for this?
JC: Yeah, at the end of every day. But that’s what? 300 vertical feet? … That is good training for this. But it’s different, ya know, trying to get up the hill at the bottom. It’s a different goal.

SR: I heard one of your cousins crashed through the (Cochran’s base lodge) window a few years ago.
JC: He did. That’s quite a story. He’s lucky to be OK. It was Ryan [Cochran-Siegle]. My dad was up on the hill watching and saw him go out of sight going incredibly fast right to where the lodge was. My dad thinks, “He’s dead, he’s going to hit the lodge.” My dad is looking down and thinking I guess I’ve got to go down. (Bob Cochran is now a physician.) But there was a big party going on when this happened. There was a guy still flipping burgers in the midst of everything. So my dad figured [Ryan] was probably OK because if he died, the guy probably would have given up on the burgers. So he knew Ryan was at least OK.

SR: Have you still been working on your engineering degree at UVM during the summer?
JC: Not in the last couple of summers. Not since I moved to Utah. I’m at the point where I really only need classes in my major. They’re so hard to get in the summer. It’s pretty much impossible. When I’m done skiing, I’ll hopefully go back to UVM, maybe be an assistant coach, and finish up. That’s kind of my dream.

SR: Are you taking skiing year by year now?
JC: Yeah, I think you have to do it that way. Every year, I look more forward to going back to school. I’m 26. Every year, skiing becomes a little more work, especially with the young guys coming up and challenging you. It gets to be more and more work.