WHISTLER, B.C – Barbara Cochran keeps her gold medal from the 1972 Olympic slalom in a case and is often asked to show it off at speaking engagements all over Vermont.

But, as far as she is concerned, her medal isn’t even her family’s most impressive skiing accomplishment. She’s more impressed by her sister’s 1969 season World Cup giant slalom title

“That was one race,” Cochran said of her gold medal. “For me, I think it’s tougher to win a World Cup title because you have to be consistent for a whole season, not just one day.”

She’s  not alone.

Phil Mahre cherishes the gold medal he won for slalom skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics and he long ago embraced the idea that, in the eyes of most people, the accomplishment defines his career.

But in terms of his skiing accomplishments it doesn’t even rate among his top three.

“Anybody can get lucky and win once in their career,” the Yakima resident said of the gold medal. “Educated ski fans know a World Cup overall title is bigger than an Olympic medal.”

Mahre, the only America to win three World Cup overall titles, doesn’t tell this to many people, because it usually requires explaining exactly what an overall title is. (The overall title goes to the skier with the best finishes in all five disciplines over an entire season.)

“Obviously, as a competitor, I think my World Cup overall titles are a much bigger accomplishment,” said Mahre, who also won a silver medal at the 1980 Olympics.

The eyes of the world will turn to Vancouver this month for the Winter Olympics to see who will win gold. While athletes covet Olympic gold and understand it’s the pinnacle of their sport, many also believe it doesn’t prove who is best in the world.

“(The emphasis on winning Olympic gold medals) is completely American,” said Jeret Peterson of Boise. Peterson finished seventh in aerials in 2006 a year after winning the World Cup season title. “If you don’t have a medal you are pretty much a nobody as soon as the games are over.

“I think that’s a horrible thing.”

When the U.S. media billed ski racer Bode Miller as a five-medal threat at the’06 games, he was widely thought of as a failure when he came up empty.

Ted Ligety, who won gold in the ’06 combined (one run on the downhill and two on the slalom) even though he’s never won a combined on the World Cup tour, laughed at the idea that Miller needed Olympic gold to validate his career.

Miller’s resume includes two World Cup overall season titles, six discipline season titles, four World Championship gold medals and two Olympic silver medals from the ’02 games.

“He’s the best skier in the world,” Ligety told The News Tribune in ’08. “I still can’t believe I have an Olympic gold medal and he doesn’t.”

Miller will be in Vancouver with five more shots at his elusive gold.

Lindsey Vonn enters the games with the expectations Miller had in ’06. Vonn was injured in a training run at the ’06 Olympics and didn’t medal. Still, Vonn has more World Cup season titles (two) and discipline season titles (four) than the combined resumes of all seven American women alpine gold medalists. (They’ve combined for two discipline titles, all by Picabo Street, and no overall titles.)

“The (World Cup) overall title is more of something that is respected in the skiing community,” Vonn said.

Vonn says “at the moment they (the Olympics) mean more to me than anything else” because it’s the only accomplishment her career is missing. And while she has dominated the World Cup circuit this season, she knows trying to win any race, especially the Olympics, is a monumental challenge in a sport where the winner is often determined by a fraction of a second. The last time she raced on Whistler’s Olympic downhill course, she finished second by 0.01 second.

“There are a lot of variables in this sport,” Vonn said. “A gust of wind at the wrong time and your Olympics are over.”

That’s precisely why Cle Elum mogul skier Patrick Deneen isn’t putting too much pressure on himself to win gold.

“A gold medal is definitely something that I’d like to have, but it’s not what my entire career is about,” Deneen said. “It’s about being the best I can possibly be.”

His dad, Pat, said his son aspires to be the best in the world this season.

“Whether that happens at the Olympics or at the end of the season,” Pat said, “that’s what he’s going for.”

Deneen won the world championship last season.

“Just the fact that I have the world championship medal back home relieves a lot of pressure,” Deneen said.

Peterson says the U.S. media deserves blame for too much emphasis being put on the Olympics in most sports. Rare are sports like basketball, cycling and tennis where there regular championships carry more weight than the Olympics in the realm of public perception.

“The media does a horrible job of covering Olympic sports outside the Olympics,” Peterson said. “… It’s like we vanish for the three years after the games.”

Luge partners Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin know this as well as anybody. They have two Olympic silver medals and say their career shouldn’t be viewed as tainted if they come up short of gold again in Whistler. They won World Cup season titles in ’98, ’99 and ’03.

“I want people to understand our sport,” Grimmette said. “Winning the World Cup title is a pretty big deal. It takes a lot of consistent success to achieve that. My friend and teammates and people in the know look at that with a lot more respect than one race.”

But don’t get these athletes wrong. Even if they don’t think an Olympic gold is the hardest accomplishment in their sports, they understand it’s the peak of their sport.

“It is still the biggest because it is the world stage,” Grimmette said. “It is the most rarified because you don’t get a shot at it every year.”

And, yes, the best athlete doesn’t always win.

“But I think that is in the spirit of the Olympics,” said aerialist Ryan St. Onge. “It’s not like they get lucky. Nobody wins by luck at this level.”

St. Onge says the fans may place too much importance on Olympic gold, but it’s justified.

“Whether it’s because of the media or the sponsor money, the Olympics are the end all, be all of our sport and we all know it,” St. Onge said. “The goal for any athlete isn’t to get lucky and be good. The goal is to be good when you choose to be good. You have to pick the days you are at your best.

“And the Olympics are the best time to choose to be your best.”