Jim Cochran is Mr. Fix It

On a rainy, cool morning in May, Jim Cochran sits on a rumbling Kubota tractor in a large cluttered garage. Late the previous evening, the U.S. Ski Team veteran, 2006 Olympian, and four-time slalom and giant slalom national champion returned to Vermont from a training camp in Mammoth, California. But he isn't resting in his apartment in Burlington. He woke up and drove straight to this garage.

"Hey," he says with a big smile. He jumps off the tractor and extends his hand, then realizes it's covered in engine grease. So he wipes it on his jacket, a beat-up gray U.S. Ski Team down coat patched with duct tape.

"This is my latest project," he says, pointing to a motorboat in the middle of the garage. A new motor sits exposed in the middle of a boat that looks like it last set sail during Gilligan's era, which was long before 28-year-old Jim was even born.

He then points out that this garage filled with you name it - a motocross bike, old windows, and tools everywhere - once served as the base lodge for Cochran's Ski Area. A gentle slope out the garage's back door now leads up to the new(er) base lodge and the ski trails beyond.

Jim's grandparents, Mickey and Ginny, started this little ski area in Richmond, Vermont, in 1961 as a training ground for their four kids - Marilyn, Barbara Ann, Bob, Lindy - who racked up 38 World Cup medals, 16 national ski titles, an overall World Cup giant slalom title, and an Olympic gold medal between 1969 and 1976.

Even though Jim has followed his dad, Bob, and aunts onto the World Cup circuit and to the Olympic Games - and he's aiming for the 2010 Olympic team - this little ski area is his domain.

And it's not because the place looks like Deer Valley. More like John Deere Valley. Now a non-profit that runs on elbow grease and the passion of volunteers - and the Cochran family - Cochran's Ski Area has a t-bar, rope tow, and children's "mighty mite" surface lift. A snowmaking system, installed in 2007, is the most modern amenity. Littered around the property is all the equipment necessary to run a ski area: tractors, groomer, snowmaking fan guns, mowers, and ... er, a couple of boats?

To Jim, they are all toys in his playground. While he considers racing with the U.S. Ski Team one of the best jobs in the world, he seems happiest when he has a project at hand - an engine to overhaul, a tractor to rebuild, or trophies to weld. Although following Aunt Barbara onto the Olympic podium would make him pretty happy too.

Like his seven cousins - Marilyn's, Barbara Ann's, and Lindy's kids - and his two siblings, Jim grew up skiing at Cochran's. Almost every winter weekend, his family would drive from their home in Keene, New Hampshire, where Bob is a doctor, north to Mickey's and Ginny's place.

Jim ski raced in high school but didn't show his potential until college. After a year at Middlebury College, he transferred to the University of Vermont to study mechanical engineering. In 2003 as a sophomore, Jim won eight collegiate races, took silver and bronze medals at the NCAA Championships, and finished fifth in slalom at the U.S. Alpine Championships. At season's end, he was named to the U.S. Ski Team.

In the past six years, he has finished in the top 10 of several World Cup races, and he took 12^th in slalom at the 2006 Olympics. Although his best World Cup finish was seventh in a GS in December 2005, his best performance came this February at the 2009 World Championships. He finished tenth but skied the fastest second run.

While his World Cup results may parallel his father's - Bob finished in the top 10 of World Cup races 21 times, including four times on the podium, and was eighth in downhill at the 1972 Olympic Winter Games - off the slopes, Jim is more like his grandfather Mickey, who died in 1998.

"He is very much my dad," agrees Barbara Ann. "He's my dad when my dad was young and had all this energy. He loves being at Cochran's and tinkering and having all these projects. That's Jimmy."

A mechanical engineer in training (he's a few credits shy of his degree at UVM) and in temperament, Jim loved following his grandfather around Cochran's. One of his all-time favorite memories is riding on the back of Mickey's tractor and helping him clear the ski trails.

This summer, when he's not lifting weights at UVM, mountain biking, playing tennis, or doing whatever else is in his off-season training repertoire, Jim will help clear the brush along the t-bar line so the manmade snow can reach the track. Last year, they had to carry toboggan loads of snow to the track to cover bare spots.

Then when he is finished with the motorboat, which he has towed up to the new base lodge to test (using water from a hose to cool the engine), he will put the finishing touches on a sawmill he built in the woods nearby. One day, he hopes to buy part of the 600-acre family property and build a house here.

"There's no place I'd rather be," he says, looking out the windows of the base lodge, which is as much a museum as it is a place for skiers and snowboarders to warm up. Laminated to the base lodge tables are old newspaper clippings with headlines that read,  "Marilyn meets Nixon" and "Bob Cochran takes Hahnenkamm." Race bibs from World Cup stops like Val Gardena and Chamonix hang from base lodge's ceiling, along with a pair of maroon Rossignol Strato 102s - the skis that carried Barbara Ann to her Olympic gold medal.

But he is not done ski racing yet, and he hopes to add to the base lodge's trophy collection - something his Aunt Barbara thinks he can do.

"He has the skill, she says. "Once you believe you can finish in the top 10, then you will start doing it consistently."

The challenge is to keep Mr. Fix It occupied when he's on the road.

"Skiing is great, but you can't ski all day every day," he says. "I need something more like this to do," he adds, gesturing to the boat parked outside.

Last summer, while training in New Zealand, he and three teammates - 2006 Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety, Cody Marshall, and cousin Tim Kelley - purchased a dilapidated Holden Camira for $200 each. An Australian subsidiary of General Motors, Holden produced the Camira between 1982 and 1989.

Although Jim doesn't say how much he worked on the car to keep it on the road, he confesses that it did finally break down, but only after they forced the issue.

"We were jumping it, that's what did it in," he says coyly. Video of their antics are on YouTube.

Once in Europe on the World Cup tour, Jim decided to tune his own skis. For maximum performance, the edges of race skis must be sharpened daily and the bases beveled and waxed - time-consuming tasks. Most World Cup skiers have technicians to work on their skis.

"I definitely paid in terms of rest," he says. "I probably wasn't as fit as I should have been because I didn't have time to run."

In January, his coaches finally put a stop to it. "He was spending four to five hours sometimes working on his skis and it was just draining him," head alpine coach Sasha Rearick told Universal Sports columnist Carrie Sheinberg. "Mid-season we met with him about it; he changed his approach and started working with a serviceman. It took a little time but he started to come around and get results. In the end, I commend him for taking charge of his idea and committing to it."

But what really fried Jim was working at Cochran's over the Holidays. During the nine days he was home, he skied and coached all day, then made snow and drove the groomer all night.

"I just tried to get my fill of this place before I went back on the road," he says. "I was sleeping when I could and having a ball. I was loving it. But it definitely sapped me."

This coming winter, he isn't sure how he will achieve a balance between tinkering and training. But his primary goal is to make the 2010 Olympic team. As one of the U.S. Ski Team's top tech skiers (slalom and giant slalom are called alpine skiing's technical disciplines), his chances are good.

Meanwhile, he wants to test his handiwork on the motorboat engine.

"The boat didn't start," he emails a day later. "We had to order more parts."

This would frustrate most people. For Jim, it means he can play with his toy that much more.

Peggy Shinn is a senior freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

Tags: cochran, Peggy Shinn, Skiing