Bode Miller to ski all five events at 2010 Olympics
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Bode Miller, the talented but temperamental Alpine skiing superstar, is ready to go all out in 2010. U.S. men’s coach Sasha Rearick, the official who was instrumental in negotiating Miller’s return to the ski team last fall, said this week that Miller would race all five events in the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.
Was there ever a doubt?
Well, yes. Miller is one of the best multi-platform skiers in history, having won two World Cup overall titles while scoring circuit victories in all five events: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined.
Miller, though, entered this World Cup season woefully behind after skipping an off-season of conditioning as he contemplated his future. Miller won a World Cup combined in Wengen, Switzerland, last month but has had no significant training in super-G or GS.
Miller has not scored any points in GS this season, which is interesting, because he began his career as a technical specialist, winning the silver in GS (and the combined) at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
Check out my profile of Miller in Wednesday’s L.A. Times to get a better insight into why Miller returned to the ski team and why he just might be a dark horse in Whistler after bombing out in all five tries at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
Miller should be especially feared in two events, the opening Feb. 13 downhill and the super-combined on Feb. 16. The combined event has been changed to one run of downhill and slalom run instead of a downhill and two slaloms, which should give an advantage to the better speed skiers.
-- Chris Dufresne
