Athlete Bios
Alpine Skiing
Daredevil Miller most gifted, versatile racer ever
Last Updated: Friday, February 5, 2010 | 11:56 AM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Bode Miller is a four-time world champion. (Francis Bompard/Getty Images)The most accomplished American ski racer of his generation and perhaps the most gifted and versatile American racer ever, Bode Miller has been the sport’s best-known personality since his breakout performance at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he won two silver medals.
Known for his unconventional approach to seemingly everything in ski racing, and for daredevil assaults of the most treacherous downhill courses, Miller has also been a pioneer of the sport.
As a teenager in the early 1990s, he was one of the first to win national titles using shaped skis, then called parabolics and considered experimental. Shaped skis, which have a deep cut, have since remade ski-racing technique and the industry. Miller also used radical tactics and methods in his racing, frequently seeming to lean back on his skis to generate speed — long considered dangerous. Not surprisingly, since Miller was a young teen, his approach and his racing philosophies have clashed with his coaches’ techniques. Miller has a well-developed distrust of authority, but his single-mindedness has produced stunning results at times.
Miller has won more World Cup events (31 entering the 2009-10 season) than any American and has won two World Cup overall championships, in 2005 and 2007. He has won four world championship gold medals and one silver to go along with his Olympic second-place finishes in the combined and the giant slalom. Miller’s combined performance in the 2002 Salt Lake Games was classic Bode Miller and a taste of things to come. At one juncture in the downhill portion of the combined, Miller lost his balance and was skidding on his hip across the icy racecourse. In a flash, he righted himself, negotiated the next gate even though it was just yards away and went on to finish with a top time.
Asked what he was thinking as he bumped along on his hip at 85 kilometres per hour, Miller said: “I looked up and could see a bunch of coaches right there on the edge of the course. I realized if I didn’t get up I might kill all of them.”
Miller’s candour and endearing life story made him popular, especially between 2002 into 2005, when he dominated the World Cup circuit. Raised in a northern New Hampshire home without electricity or running water, Miller (born Oct. 12, 1977) was home-schooled until the fourth grade and spent countless days skiing by himself as a child. His independent ways rankled many inside the United States ski team, but few could argue with the results.
As early as the spring of 2005, Miller started talking about how he did not want to compete in the 2006 Olympics because of his deep mistrust of the celebrity-making machine that surrounds the Games. In time, Miller’s associates talked him into racing in those Turin Games, with Miller himself deciding that it was inevitable. But he remained conflicted.
Miller was not in great condition entering the 2005-6 World Cup season and was having an uneven year. But his Olympics were worse — a disaster in the eyes of many, and a disgrace to some. Expected to contend in five events, he did not win a medal and expressed an apathetic attitude toward his results. His late-night appearances in the bars of Sestriere did not help his image.
Miller was stung by the torrent of criticism after the Games. He broke free of the United States ski team and withdrew from all exposure to the news media. He also altered some of his behaviour, conceding in rare interviews that he gave up drinking alcohol throughout the next season, when he again won the World Cup overall title.
Miller continued to perform well until last season, when he was injured in December of 2009 and for the first time in many years failed to win a World Cup race. He left the circuit in February 2009 and said he was contemplating retirement. He did not work out or participate in the customary off-season ski training in South America and New Zealand. Then, in September 2009, he announced he was returning to the United States team. Since then, Miller has seemed more relaxed, and while his results have been uneven, he finished fourth at the downhill at Beaver Creek in early December.
As the 2010 Olympics draw near, Milled acknowledges he is not in great race shape, but he could regain much of his conditioning and, more important, the distinctive mix of agility and aggression that made him so hard to beat. He will be a racer to watch every time he gets in the start gate and will very likely contend for medals in the downhill and the super-G.
