Winter Sports School grad Megan McJames shredded the NorAm circuit two years ago. At 18, the Park City native won the overall, super-G and giant slalom titles. Yee-haw!

The SG and GS championships earned her automatic start spots for World Cup races last season. McJames didn’t race many of them, but did ski in enough to get her first real taste of what international racing is all about. It’s a big step up from NorAms, which largely pit U.S. skiers against Canadians with a few European strays.

Last year, McJames scored her first World Cup points with a 28th on a gnarly giant slalom hill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the stylish Italian resort village which was the scene of the 1956 Winter Games.

She’s back in Cortina this week, but McJames will be facing speed events this time — a downhill today and then back-to-back super-Gs Sunday and Monday.

(Fog deleted downhill training Wednesday and about three feet of snow Thursday

forced the rebooting of Friday’s SG so organizers could hold the lone DH training run, which is required for racers’ safety. They must have one opportunity, and preferably two, to ski the high-speed track in a downhill.)

McJames, 20, didn’t seem to be intimidated by Cortina’s big hill. But maybe you can’t be intimidated by something you can’t see. In a cell-phone interview Thursday night, she said, “We haven’t seen much of the course yet. It’s been snowing all day today and it was foggy [Wednesday] … and a little foggy today, too.

“I’ve never raced speed [i.e., downhill and super-G] here, but we inspected [Wednesday] morning before the fog stopped the training run. It looks technical, which could help me out,” she said. She paused and then reflected on the soft, new snow and — running at the back of the field — McJames added, “That could be bad.” Soft snow and big entry fields often translate to a choppy, rutted course for racers late in the field. She was scheduled to ski 45th Friday in the field of 56 racers.

cJames said it is what it is. It’s something else she has to learn to deal with as she makes her way onto the World Cup … and, hopefully, to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. She made one immense step just before New Year’s when she finished 17th in a World Cup giant slalom in Lienz, Austria.

“It’s definitely been a new season and I’ve been spending a lot of time in Europe, although I did get back to Park City for a week before Christmas, which was great.” What wasn’t great was flying back to Europe on Christmas Day, but she understands that’s part of the life of a ski racer.

“I’m learning to cope with being away so much, but we’ve been seeing some good places. It’s tough being away from home; you do kind of miss it. There’s a different language everywhere and the food’s different, so you have to find things you like,” she said.

“It’s been nice, though. Everyone’s so good at this level and it’s whoever has a good day, it seems. No, it’s not like the NorAms, for sure, and that’s a bit of a wake-up call, but it’s fun, too.

“I’ve always dreamt of racing in World Cup races, and it’s definitely cool. There’s more of a crowd, a lot of excitement, but, really, it’s just another race. You have to make the top 30 to get a second run.” (On the NorAm and Europa Cup circuits, top 60 in the first run get to do it again.)

One way to cope, she said, is “to try to go about it the same way. You can think of the crowd and the hype when you’re finished. It certainly helps to have confidence in yourself.

“I’ve had a little success at this level, gotten into the top 30 [for World Cup points], and now I’m trying to make it more consistent,” she explained.

One way of defusing any intimidation factor, she’s found, is to stop viewing your young-racer heroes and heroines as unapproachable athletes or bulletproof racers.

“I’ve started to see the other girls as people, and now I’m getting to know their personalities. It’s nice to have the Canadians around. Some of their girls are trying to break through, too. It’s good to see familiar faces when you’re on the road and, depending on where we are, we’ll be in the same hotel with other teams sometimes.”

Cortina was the site where Picabo Street said she made the breakthrough which made her a two-time World Cup champion, Olympic gold and silver medal-winner, and World Championships triple medalist. It there in January 1993 that she earned her first top-10 World Cup result, evolving into a contending downhiller after a NorAm career in which she won consecutive overall titles in the early ’90s and a GS crown.

Street credited Coach Ernst Hager with unlocking the secret to being a kick-ass downhiller. “Ernie