Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Robert Bruce Cochran |
Born | Claremont, New Hampshire, U.S. | December 11, 1951
Occupation | Alpine skier |
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
Skiing career | |
Disciplines | Downhill, giant slalom, slalom, combined |
Club | University of Vermont |
World Cup debut | December 1969 (age 18) |
Retired | March 1974 (age 22) |
Olympics | |
Teams | 1 – (1972) |
Medals | 0 |
World Championships | |
Teams | 3 – (1970, 1972, 1974) includes Olympics |
Medals | 0 |
World Cup | |
Seasons | 5 – (1970–74) |
Wins | 1 - (1 GS) |
Podiums | 4 – (1 DH, 1 GS, 2 SL) |
Overall titles | 0 – (8th in 1973) |
Discipline titles | 0 – (9th in SL, 1973) |
Robert Bruce Cochran (born December 11, 1951) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Born in Claremont, New Hampshire, Cochran was a member of the Skiing Cochrans family of Richmond, Vermont. [1] [2] He had one World Cup victory, four podiums, and 21 top ten finishes. His best finish in the World Cup season standings was in 1973: eighth overall and ninth in slalom. Cochran also won the combined event at Kitzbühel, Austria, the first win in that event by an American, [3] although not an official World Cup race at the time. His sole World Cup win was in giant slalom, which he considered his weakest event. [4] That win was the first by an American male in a World Cup giant slalom. [5] It was Cochran's only top ten result in giant slalom, his other twenty were evenly split between downhill and slalom.
At the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan, Cochran finished eighth in the downhill and 17th in the giant slalom, but fell in the slalom. [6] At the World Championships, he placed 14th in the downhill in 1974 in Switzerland, but fell in both the giant slalom and slalom. [7] [8] He was 26th in the downhill in 1970 in Italy. [9]
Cochran last competed in World Cup in 1974, raced the pro tour [5] [10] in North America for several years, [11] [12] then studied medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington. He graduated in 1981 and became a family practice physician in New Hampshire. His son Jimmy (b. 1981) was also a World Cup racer.
Cochran was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2010, joining older sisters Marilyn (1978) and Barbara (1976). He is also a member of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame with his siblings Marilyn, a fellow 2014 inductee, and Barbara, inducted in 2013.
Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | 18 | 33 | 20 | — | not run | 22 | not run |
1971 | 19 | 50 | — | — | 23 | ||
1972 | 20 | 29 | 11 | — | 17 | ||
1973 | 21 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 10 | ||
1974 | 22 | 26 | 13 | — | 19 |
Points were only awarded for top ten finishes (see scoring system).
Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|
1972 | 23 Jan 1972 | Wengen, Switzerland | Slalom | 3rd |
1973 | 27 Jan 1973 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | 3rd |
23 Mar 1973 | Heavenly Valley, USA | Slalom | 2nd | |
24 Mar 1973 | Giant slalom | 1st |
Cochran's win in the combined at Kitzbühel in 1973 is omitted because it was not
an official World Cup race until two years later. He finished 23rd in the slalom portion to win. [3]
Anne Heggtveit, is a former alpine ski racer from Canada. She was an Olympic gold medallist and double world champion in 1960.
Wallace Jerold "Buddy" Werner was an American alpine ski racer in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Vladimir Peter Sabich Jr. was an American alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup circuit in the late 1960s. He competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics and was the pro ski racing champion in 1971 and 1972. Sabich was killed by gunshot under controversial circumstances involving Claudine Longet in 1976.
Didier Défago is a Swiss retired World Cup alpine ski racer.
Cynthia Lee Nelson is former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Susan Corrock Luby is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team in the early 1970s. Talented in all three disciplines, she had 16 top ten finishes in World Cup competition: 8 in downhill, 2 in giant slalom, and 6 in slalom.
Barbara Ann Cochran is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from the United States.
William Winston Kidd is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1962 to 1970.
The Skiing Cochrans are a family of American alpine ski racers from Richmond, Vermont, a dominant force on the U.S. Ski Team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and again in 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.
Roland Collombin is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland, a two-time World Cup downhill champion and Olympic silver medalist.
Gustav Thöni is an Italian retired alpine ski racer.
Karl Schranz is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria, one of the best of the 1960s and early 1970s.
Katharine Kreiner-Phillips is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Canada.
Guy Périllat Merceroz is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the resort of La Clusaz, Haute-Savoie, one of the top ski racers of the 1960s.
Buck Hill is a ski hill in Burnsville, Minnesota, a suburb south of Minneapolis. It is one of three ski areas in the Twin Cities metropolitan area; the others are Afton Alps and Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area. Buck Hill opened in 1954 and offers ski, snowboard, and tubing trails. Artificial snow is often used to maintain the slopes, because while Minnesota's winters are cold, the average annual snowfall is low for a ski area: less than 60 in (150 cm).
Christina "Kiki" Cutter is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She was the first American to win a World Cup event, a slalom race in Oslo, Norway, on February 25, 1968. Although Cutter competed on the World Cup circuit for less than three years, her five career victories led the U.S. alpine team for eleven years, surpassed by Phil Mahre in 1979.
Marilyn Cochran Brown is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Otto Victor Tschudi Jr. is a Norwegian alpine skier best known for success in the American NCAA Skiing Championships and World Pro Skiing ski racing circuits. He participated at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, and achieved four top-ten results in World Cup slalom races. Between 1970 and 1972 he won five individual NCAA championships for the University of Denver Pioneers ski team while the team won two team championships. After the Sapporo Olympics Tschudi competed for eight seasons on the World Pro Skiing Tour, leading the Rossignol international team. He served as president of the Professional Ski Racers Association and as director of skiing at Winter Park Resort in Colorado. Tschudi later joined the financial-service firm Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, and rose to become a partner and managing director of international sales at Thomas Weisel Partners.
Linda Lorraine "Lindy" Cochran Kelley is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Cyprien Sarrazin is a French World Cup alpine ski racer who races in giant slalom, super-G and downhill.