Marilyn Cochran

Marilyn Cochran
 Alpine skier 
Disciplines Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined
Club University of Vermont
Born (1950-02-05) February 5, 1950
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
World Cup debut March 1968 (age 18)
Retired March 1974 (age 24)
Olympics
Teams 1 – (1972)
Medals 0
World Championships
Teams 3 – (1970, 1972, 1974)
      includes Olympics
Medals 1 (0 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 6 – (196974)
Wins 3 – (1 GS, 2 SL)
Podiums 15 – (9 GS, 6 SL)
Overall titles 0 – (8th in 1973)
Discipline titles 1 – (GS, 1969)

Marilyn Cochran Brown (born February 5, 1950) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.

The eldest of four siblings of the "Skiing Cochrans" family of Richmond, Vermont, she became the first American to win a discipline championship in the World Cup, triumphing in giant slalom at age 19 in 1969.[1] The next year, she won a bronze medal in the combined at the World Championships.[2]

Racing career

Born in Burlington, Vermont, Cochran and her younger sister Barbara (b.1951) joined the U.S. Ski Team in 1967. She made her World Cup debut at age 18 in March 1968, a month after the Winter Olympics, with a pair of top ten finishes at the season's final stop in Aspen, Colorado. Brother Bob (b. 1951) joined the men's "A team" for the 1970 season and the three siblings competed on the World Cup tour through the 1974 season.

Marilyn was a three-time U.S. national champion during her career. In the 1969 season, she finished runner-up in the final five giant slalom races and won the World Cup season title.[1] Cochran was the only American alpine racer with a World Cup season title until 1980, when Phil Mahre won the combined. She won the bronze medal in the combined at the 1970 World Championships in Val Gardena, Italy.[2] Sister Barbara was fourth in that competition, but won a silver in the slalom, where Marilyn was sixth.[3]

Cochran won three World Cup races, two in giant slalom and one in slalom, and had 15 podiums and fifty top ten finishes. The first victory came in February 1971 close to home, in Quebec at Mont St. Anne, with sister Barbara as runner-up.[4] She competed in all three events at the Winter Olympics in 1972 in Japan, but with disappointing results: 28th in downhill, 20th in giant slalom, and a fall in the first run of the slalom, the race won by her sister. At the World Championships in 1974 in Switzerland, she finished eighth in giant slalom, and retired from international competition after the season.

After racing

After her racing career, Cochran attended the University of Vermont in Burlington in and graduated in 1979. She married Chris Brown, an All-American racer at the university and later a professor of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Their son Roger Brown, a 2004 graduate of Dartmouth College, was also an All-American. He was the 2002 NCAA slalom champion and competed on the U.S. Ski Team. Younger son Douglas Brown was captain of the ski team at St. Lawrence University, and graduated in 2009.

Cochran was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1978. Sister Barbara (1976) and brother Bob (2010) are also members of the hall. Cochran also joined her siblings Barbara (2013) and Bob (2014) as members of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

World Cup results

Season titles

Season Discipline
1969 Giant Slalom

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
Slalom
Super G Downhill Combined
1968 18 42 35 18not
run
not
run
1969 19 11 11 1 20
1970 20 13 10 11 15
1971 21 11 10 8 11
1972 22 12 11 5 23
1973 23 8 9 7 21
1974 24 23 11

Points were only awarded for top ten finishes (see scoring system).

Race podiums

SeasonDateLocationDisciplinePlace
19694 Jan 1969West Germany Oberstaufen, West Germany Slalom 3rd
9 Feb 1969Italy Vipiteno, Italy Giant Slalom 2nd
17 Feb 1969Czechoslovakia Vysoké Tatry, Czechoslovakia Giant Slalom 2nd
1 Mar 1969United States Squaw Valley, CA, USA Giant Slalom 2nd
14 Mar 1969 Canada Mont St. Anne, QC, Canada Giant Slalom 2nd
20 Mar 1969United States Waterville Valley, NH, USA Giant Slalom 2nd
1970 6 Jan 1970   Switzerland Grindelwald, Switzerland Slalom 3rd
1971 13 Feb 1971Canada Mont St. Anne, QC, Canada Slalom 1st
14 Mar 1971Sweden Åre, Sweden Giant Slalom 2nd
1972 3 Jan 1972West Germany Oberstaufen, West Germany Giant Slalom 3rd
3 Mar 1972United States Heavenly Valley, CA, USA Slalom 3rd
197321 Jan 1973France Les Contamines, France Slalom 3rd
26 Jan 1973France Chamonix, France Slalom 1st
15 Mar 1973Japan Naeba, Japan Giant Slalom 1st
19747 Dec 1973France Val-d'Isère, France Slalom 3rd

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Austrian skier tops U.S. gals". Schenectady Gazette. Associated Press. March 21, 1969. p. 27.
  2. 1 2 "Sports scoreboard: skiing". Eugene Register-Guard. February 15, 1970. p. 4B.
  3. "Sports whirl". Virgin Islands Daily. Associated Press. February 14, 1970. p. 16.
  4. "Sisters one-two in world ski cup". Reading Eagle. Associated Press. February 14, 1971. p. 66.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, May 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.