Ryan Cochrane: This is the go-to guy Canadian swimming needs

The recent Pan Pac Swimming Championships slipped under the radar because they finished late each night in California and with them the breakout peformance of distance freestyler Ryan Cochrane went pretty much unnoticed.

That shouldn’t be the case for long because in Cochrane it looks like Canada could have a world beater the likes of which it hasn’t had since the days of Alex Baumann and Victor Davis.

He’s certainly not near the level of those legends yet, but Cochrane supplies the Canadian swim team with a much needed go-to guy, someone who can give them the big performance to punctuate a meet. He won golds in both the 800 and 1,500 metres at the Pan Pacs in Irvine, Calif., setting the world’s fastest time in the former and second fastest by about half a second in the latter.

The upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be a good chance for the Victoria swimmer to strut his stuff.

As impressive as his swimming is, it’s his attitude that’s really refreshing. He was a bit overwhelmed when he surprised as a 19-year-old with a bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but two years later is starting to embrace a leadership role.

“Now, I’m okay with taking that role,” he said. “It was really thrust on me in Beijing. I wasn’t comfortable with it then because I wasn’t ready to carry the team with me. I was just focused on myself and whether that’s selfish or not is up for debate. But as an athlete, sometimes you have to be selfish.

“I think now I can handle all the pressure that comes along with it. The attitude on the national team now has really changed. We can talk about winning now, we can talk about winning medals. … We hope we can get a confidence on the national team, not to be arrogant, but a confidence that we can actually compete with the rest of the world."

Advice worth heeding: Speaking of Alex Baumann, Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen has done an excellent story with the head of Own The Podium about giving your kids’ a balanced sports experience. It touches on the suicide of Baumann’s older brother Roman.

(The Associated Press photo shows Cochrane after winning the 800 metres at the Pan Pacs)

Comments

[Ian]

To use the excuse that the PanPacs were not covered because of there late ending time doesn't quite cut it. MLB,NHL and NBA all have games that end later at night than the swimming did yet they receive extensive coverage in Canadian media. The truth is that mainstream media in Canada will only cover professional sports even if no Canadians are involved. This has long been a beef of mine!

There was far more coverage of the PanPacs available from European media on BBC, Eurosport and More than the Games website with NO Europeans even competing.Thank goodness we are able to view those sites or we would never know how our Canadian athletes are doing!

[Flag flap]

Agree with Ian. In case you missed it, we had a communications revolution and everything goes 24-7 now.