Queen of one more thing

Watching Lindsey Vonn ski down the first run at Levi in almost effortless style and cross the finish line in first place was a bit surreal. She looked stunned, and for a second I’d bet she wondered if there had been some sort of timing error. It took her a minute to start smiling and waving.
I bet the rest of the women’s field was just as shocked. Now what are they going to do?
With Vonn able to win in four events, she is going to be tough to dethrone as World Cup queen.
Winning in Levi also made her the first American to win World Cups in all four events and brought her victory tally on the tour to 14.
“A lot of it has to do with the training I had in New Zealand over the summer. I trained with the men's World Cup and Europa Cup Team on injected snow and also did some training with Erik Schlopy last week in at Copper Mountain in Colorado. The preparation was there," Vonn said.
She won by four tenths of a second over Maria Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden, who celebrated her first World Cup podium. Third Maria Riesch of Germany.
Though the win was a surprise, looking back at last year one had to expect it coming. Vonn’s been working hard on the Rossignol slalom ski and she won the 2008 National Championships, too. And don’t forget the second run win at World Championships in Bormio, which secured her the overall title. She also grew up skiing at Buck Hill in Minnesota, (elevation 309 ft.) a program that produced slalom great Kristina Koznick.

Schlep-star returns
Perhaps more impressive than Vonn’s win in Levi was Sarah Schleper’s performance. Though it wasn’t a podium, or even a top-10 and yes, even though she didn’t end up scoring any World Cup points at all, Schleper is back.
In her first slalom in nearly three years, Schleper tied for 30th in the first run and was looking solid through her second when she missed a gate over a difficult roll in the course. She stopped quickly enough to hike back for the gate and finish the run. She ended up 25th but was too far back in time to gain World Cup points.
Normally, it takes an athlete some time to adjust to being back racing at World Cup level. It’s especially tough to have to fight back into the top 30. Some racers could spend half a season trying to accomplish what Schleper has in just one. It was a big, big statement that shows she’s serious about returning.
Schleper took time off to have a baby and she’s on tour this year with her son Lasse.
Schleper has three World Cup slalom podiums in her career including a win at Lenzerheide in 2005.

Q&A with Jimmy Cochran

Jimmy Cochran is the reigning National Slalom Champion and was a former Mount Mansfield Ski Club and UVM racer. Right now he’s in Levi, Finland getting ready to race the season’s first World Cup slalom on Sunday. With three top-10 finishes in World Cups last season, Cochran has great momentum to build on. Go get ‘em, Jimmy!

WCN: Tell us about how the season is shaping up for you.
JC: The season is shaping up nicely. We have some new coaches who are simply a pleasure to work with. Particularly our new head coach Rudi Soulard. I've seen two types of coaches in my career. There are those that coach symptomatically (you're sitting back, you're getting late after that hairpin, you're slow on the flats, etc.) and there are those that coach proactively ("you're losing your outside ski SO, try driving your outside shoulder forward through the turn"). It's rare to have a coach that can offer up effective solutions to technical problems, but Rudi does just that. He's also a great guy.

WCN: This year you spent the summer in VT, right? How did that work out as far as preparation and training goes?
JC: I spent a lot more time outside of the weight room this summer - hiking, biking, playing soccer, basketball, doing manual labor at the family ski hill. For example, a bunch of us spent a summer day doing a sport for every letter of the alphabet. It took thirteen hours, but we made it... and had a ball. We had to come with some real funky stuff for some letters. The Internet helped.

WCN: What’s it like in Levi? Tell us a little about the hill and the town.
JC: It's north of the Arctic Circle and stepping outside is an immediate reminder. It's COLD, and dark, and snowy. The whole place reminds me of Christmas. Not surprising I suppose, given it's proximity to the North Pole. The race hill is pretty standard for a world cup hill (by standard world cup hill I mean it's singularly unique). It starts off fairly flat though there are waves of terrain that add a few tactical blips. Twenty gates of this lead to a classic turn-as-you-break-over-onto-a-steep-icy-pitch. Standard world cup fare as I said. Never easy though. The pitch is about NOT making mistakes by skiing smart. The thing I really like about this hill though is the run-out at the bottom of this steep icy pitch. If you're clever (and the good guys all are) you can run surprisingly straight at the last few steep turns and carry tremendous speed on to the short flat before the finish. If you don't you'll be slow through the last ten gates and all that speed you did not carry will be compounded into a slow time. Try to straighten out the steep to early and you'll crash. Nuances really.

The race hill in Levi. Photo courtesy U.S. Ski Team

WCN: Since this is a World Championship and pre-Olympic year does that change the intensity of races at all? How does it affect the season?
JC: On the one hand, each and every world cup has a lot on the line. On the other hand, there's something truly special about success in those championship events. Especially the Olympics. But it's easy to worry about making those world championship/Olympic teams, so I try to stay focused on the here and now.

WCN: You’ve got a pretty interesting equipment set-up - Fischer boots and Volkl skis. Tell us why you went with it.
JC: After testing equipment this spring at Stowe, I felt like this was the best set up. Technica (my boot sponsor till this season) had a new boot that was pretty good but they didn't have my size and wouldn't until long into the season. Fischer had a great boot (and ski actually) and I immediately fell in love with it. Because Volkl has no associated brand of boot (up until this season they were distributed in the US by the same company that distributed Technica though they are two separate companies) I was able to stay on the skis I knew and loved AND get into a great boot (that fits). Some people grumbled but screw ‘em.

WCN: I also heard you’re tuning your own skis. Do other guys do that and why’d you decide to take on the work yourself?
JC: I am, and no. No one else does that. Quite simply, I enjoy it. Most people think the reason is that I'm anal retentive and real particular about how my skis are handled. In reality I needed something to keep my hands busy on the road. When I'm home I tinker with a tractor or build something. On the road I had nothing. When not skiing (which turns out to be a LOT of time) I would just sit around and get bored. Now I have an engaging project every day. It's a lot of work but totally fulfilling. My only complaint is that it's hard on my body. Skiing hard all morning then hunching over my bench for hours is more of a physical challenge than I anticipated (I'm not getting any younger either). But if a sore back and callused hands is the price for going to bed content than I'll gladly pay it.

WCN: You’re a big Sox fan. Give us your take on the team this year. Should we have let Manny go?
JC: TOUGH question. I'd say all in all it was a great season. I had fun cheering for them. We're getting spoiled in New England so maybe we should be happy with just getting to watch any October baseball. Although them losing meant we had to shift our attention to Matt Cassel. Stressful. As for Manny? It's the end of an era. Sad in some ways but there it is. As long as we have Pedroia the Destroya...