Bode Miller

Bode Miller

Personal information
Occupation	Alpine skier
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Sport
Country	United States
Skiing career
Disciplines	Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Combined
World Cup debut	November 20, 1997
Website	skispace.com/bode
Olympics
Teams	4
Medals	5 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams	6
Medals	5 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	13
Wins	32
Podiums	68
Overall titles	2
Discipline titles	6

Samuel Bode Miller (pronounced /ˈboʊdi/; born October 12, 1977) is an American alpine ski racer. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and is generally considered the greatest American alpine skier of all time. He is also considered one of the greatest FIS Alpine World Cup skiers of all time with 32 total victories, and a victory in all five disciplines.

In 2008, Miller and Lindsey Vonn helped the United States sweep the men's and women's overall World Cup titles for the first time in 25 years. With 32 World Cup victories, he is the most successful male American alpine ski racer of all time. He became the fifth man to win World Cup races in all five disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, downhill, and combined. He is the only ski racer in history to win five World Cup races in each of the five alpine disciplines.

He has won five medals in the Winter Olympics, the most of any U.S. skier — two silvers (giant slalom and combined) in Salt Lake City 2002, and a gold (super combined), a silver (Super G) and a bronze (downhill) in Vancouver 2010. Miller is one of five skiers who have won Olympic medals in four different disciplines, matching the feats of Kjetil André Aamodt and female racers Anja Pärson, Janica Kostelic, and Katja Seizinger..

He has also won six discipline World Cups in four different disciplines, failing only to win a season title in slalom. On May 12, 2007, Miller left the U.S. Ski Team and raced independently for his personally-financed "Team America" for two seasons. Miller departed the 2009 season before its completion and rejoined the U.S. Ski Team in October 2009.

CHILD HOOD WIKIPEDIA DONT EDIT THIS

Born in Easton, New Hampshire, to Jo Kenney and Woody Miller, he grew up in Franconia, a small community in the heart of New Hampshire's ski region that borders the Cannon Mountain ski area. His family, including older sister Kyla, younger sister Wren (short for Genesis Wren Bungo Windrushing Turtleheart), and younger brother Chelone (full name Nathaniel Kinsman Ever Chelone Skan), lived on 450 acres (2 km²) of land in a forest, where his parents celebrated solstices, in a log cabin without electricity or indoor plumbing. He was homeschooled until the third grade, but after his parents divorced, he began attending public school. He applied for and got a scholarship to the Carrabassett Valley Academy, a ski racing academy in Maine. His mother's parents owned and started the Tamarack Tennis Camp, and he has played tennis and soccer since childhood.

Miller first gained widespread recognition when he won two silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in the giant slalom and combined events, though he had been known to skiing fans since he burst onto the World Cup scene as an 18-year-old in 1996. Miller is known for his reckless style, often risking crashes to increase his chances of winning a given race; in his book, Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun, Miller stated that his goal as a skier was not to win medals, but rather to ski "as fast as the natural universe will allow." In 2006, Miller also became famous for his reclusive (but outspoken) personality and his attention-getting statements.

Skiing career

Bode Miller

Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing theUnited States
Olympic Games
	2010 Vancouver	Super Combined
	2002 Salt Lake City	Giant Slalom
	2002 Salt Lake City	Combined
	2010 Vancouver	Super-G
	2010 Vancouver	Downhill
World Championships
	2003 St. Moritz	Giant Slalom
	2003 St. Moritz	Combined
	2005 Bormio	Super-G
	2005 Bormio	Downhill
	2003 St. Moritz	Super-G

1998–2001 seasons

Miller not only first appeared in the World Cup during the 1998 season but also represented the United States in the 1998 Nagano Olympics, competing in both of the technical disciplines (giant slalom and slalom). In 1999, he also competed in Super G (which is considered a speed discipline, not a technical one) and represented the U.S. in all three events at the World Ski Championships at Beaver Creek, with a best finish of 8th in slalom. He finally achieved a podium in a giant slalom at Val d'Isère on December 17, 2000 (placing third), but then only competed in Super-G at the 2001 World Ski Championships; he crashed during the downhill portion of the combined and tore knee ligaments, which ended his competition.

2002 season

During this season, Miller began regularly competing in downhill, making him a five-event skier on the World Cup circuit, although he was still considered a technical specialist. Miller won his first World Cup ski race on December 29, 2001, taking the giant slalom at Val d'Isère, and then followed it up the next day with another win in the slalom at Madonna di Campiglio. He would go on to win two more slalom races in January 2002, along with a pair of silver medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in February, thus and established himself as the top racer on the U.S. Ski Team. This was his final season on Fischer skis, he switched to Rossignol following the season's completion.

2003 season

Miller challenged for the World Cup overall title but fell just short, finishing second to Stephan Eberharter of Austria. At the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Miller won three medals: gold in giant slalom and combined, and silver in Super-G. He also won two other giant slaloms during the season.

2004 season

In this season Miller won World Cup titles in two disciplines: giant slalom and combined, but placed 4th in the competition for the overall title. He won six World Cup races: three giant slaloms, two combineds and one slalom. After the season, Miller switched to Atomic skis.

2005 season

Miller won his first overall World Cup title, defeating Austrians Benjamin Raich and Hermann Maier.

Miller made history early in the season by winning at least one race in each of the four standard World Cup disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, super-G and downhill; by winning a slalom in Sestriere, Italy, on December 13, 2004, he joined Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, who had been the first man to accomplish this feat in 1989. Miller accomplished the feat in less time than any previous skier, male or female; the victory was his sixth of the season after only ten races. At the 2005 World Championships in Bormio, Italy, he won two gold medals, in super-G and downhill. In the Bormio downhill he lost a ski after 20 seconds but managed to finish the race. [2]

2006 season

Bode Miller skiing the Giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Despite the hype surrounding Miller prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, every one of Miller's five medal bids in the Turin Games fell short: he finished a disappointing 5th in the Downhill, was disqualified – while in first place at the time – during the second leg of the Combined event, received a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the Super G, tied for 6th in the giant slalom, and claimed another DNF after missing a gate in the Slalom. Nevertheless, Miller won two races during the season (a giant slalom and a Super G) and placed third for the season's overall World Cup title. At the 2006 U.S. National Championships following the World Cup season, Miller won the downhill and giant slalom titles. He switched to Head skis following the season's completion. Miller had prolotherapy treatments to the ligaments in his knee or knees in February 2006, along with other ski team members, Bryon Friedman and Eric Schlopy.

2007 season

Bode Miller had 4 first place finishes (two downhills and two Super Gs) in the early going of the 2007 World Cup. For the season, Miller finished 4th overall and won the Super G title. On May 12, 2007, Miller announced that he was leaving the U.S. Ski Team. He followed the precedent set by slalom skier Kristina Koznick, who left the U.S. Ski Team following the 2000 season and raced the next six years for the U.S. as an independent.

2008 season

Bode Miller clinched his second overall championship at the World Cup finals in Bormio, Italy. Miller missed a chance to also win the season's downhill title when bad weather prevented the season's last race from being run. Miller got his first win of the season at the Stelvio downhill in Bormio in December. On January 13, Miller won for the second year in a row the legendary Wengen downhill, matching Phil Mahre as the most successful American skier with 27 World Cup victories. On January 20, he broke this record by winning the Hahnenkamm combined event at Kitzbühel. On January 27, he won the first super combined in his career in Chamonix and took the lead in the World Cup standings. On February 3, he won the super combined in Val d'Isère, France, and took the combined title. On March 1, Bode got his sixth win of the season at Kvitfjell, Norway, cementing his lead in the overall standings and closing to 5 points on Didier Cuche in downhill. At the end of this impressive season he was crowned overall champion.

2009 season

Miller responded to his World Cup success in 2008 with the worst season of his professional career, leading some to speculate that he may be "burned out." Miller failed to win a race for the first time in eight years and had only two official podium finishes, both seconds in downhill, to show for his season. Miller suffered a torn ligament in his left ankle in a December fall at Beaver Creek, which may have been a factor in his performance. He took a four-week break from competition in February and March, the first World Cup races that he had failed to start in three years, and missed the end of the World Cup season, although he still had a chance to win the season's downhill title. He said that "the fire goes away after a while", and he hinted at retirement.

2010 season

The on-hill podium ceremony.
From left: Ivica Kostelić (silver), Bode Miller (gold) and Silvan Zurbriggen (bronze)

After returning to the U.S. Ski Team, Miller missed much of the early part of the 2010 season due to an ankle sprain during a volleyball game with other members of the team. However, he returned by winning a World Cup super-combined event in Wengen on January 15, 2010, for his first victory in nearly two years.

He made the US team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in late 2009, and he was selected to ski in all five events despite his lack of training. In his first race, after several delays due to warm weather and poor snow conditions, Miller won a bronze medal in the Vancouver Olympics downhill, the first American on the downhill Olympic podium since Tommy Moe in 1994. Miller's bronze medal time was 1:54.40, nine hundredths of a second behind gold medalist Didier Defago, and two hundredths behind Aksel Lund Svindal, who took the silver; the time difference between the gold and bronze medals was the smallest in Olympic downhill history. He then won a silver in the Super G, giving him four Olympic medals, more than any other American Alpine skier. On February 21, 2010, he won his first Olympic gold medal in the super combined. After the downhill portion of the race, Miller was in seventh place, but finished the slalom portion third overall, giving him a total time of 2:44.92 to win the combined. However, Miller then failed to finish either the giant slalom or slalom, and he took the rest of the season off due to continuing problems with his ankle injury.

Publicity, press and promotions

2002 Olympics fame

Miller's fame was partly spawned by his 2002 Winter Olympics slalom performance. He had already won two silver medals and was in line for a third when he missed a gate. Instead of stopping, he hiked back up the course to retry the gate and finish – a rare, mostly symbolic act of dedication in a sport where a hundredth of a second can separate gold from bronze.

2006 Olympics controversy

The good feeling generated by Miller's 2002 Olympic performance was quickly dissipated in 2006. On the program 60 Minutes, in January 2006, Miller described the act of skiing "wasted" and compared it to lawlessly driving while intoxicated. Throughout the Olympics, Miller said, "I'm just trying to ski in a way that's exciting for me." In an interview shortly after his last race, he said that it had "been an awesome two weeks," and that he "got to party and socialize at an Olympic level." After an unapologetic Miller interview with Tom Brokaw, Bob Costas concluded in a primetime editorial that Miller might finally get what he wanted: to be unceremoniously forgotten. Miller received negative coverage in the American and international media; editorials focused on his attitude of simply not caring about the Olympics or about his performance.

Many perceived his "party at an Olympic level" attitude as a violation of the "Olympic Spirit." Nike's 2006 advertising campaign urged consumers to "Join Bode." This prompted Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins to ask, "Where? At the bar?" in response to his well-publicized nights on the town in Sestriere. He was even referred to as the "biggest bust in Olympic history" for his performance. Others have argued that the blame for Miller's crash-and-burn publicity should be shared between himself, his PR people, and his manager. The theory is that they collectively made Miller available for a veritable media blitz in the months leading up to the Olympics, which was bound to backfire without Miller's commitment to perform. Miller himself said:

[The Olympic hype] is going to be a tough thing for me to manage. My actions are not always consistent. I'm super-mellow and laid back, but I'm always thinking and running 100,000 scenarios through my head. Sometimes I'm disciplined, but I like to be a total slacker, too. I party hard, but I train hard. People are going to try and figure me out and figure out my motivations, and it's going to be a circus.

2010 Olympics success

Bode Miller in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Miller's success in the 2010 Olympic Games has been contrasted with his 2006 results. Miller's explanation for his belated success was simple: "Most likely it’s because I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” At the 2010 games, his coaches stated that he "helps inspire [them]," a very different attitude than four years previously. Miller himself said that the difference was that in 2006, his role as "poster boy" for the Olympics, after the corruption scandals associated with the 2002 Winter Olympics, was "the absolute thing I despise the most in the world" and "really draining on my inspiration, my level of passion." Ultimately, the publicity "had been happening for a year, and it was just too much." By contrast, in 2010, he noted that he wasn't so proud of the medals themselves but of the "absolutely amazing" feeling when "you ... magically ski at your absolute best." He ended the 2010 Olympic Games as the most successful American skier and athlete overall.

General press reaction

Miller is generally unpopular with reporters who cover skiing. One referred to him in 2009 as "a tedious bore given to statements that smack of hypocrisy." Another said that Miller's behavior had alienated him from "pretty much everyone but those who mindlessly celebrate rebels simply for their rebellion, however misplaced it might be."

Miller's autobiography, Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun, co-written with his friend Jack McEnany, was published by Villard/Random House on October 18, 2005. Miller also became the first American alpine skier since Tommy Moe to endorse a video game when Bode Miller Alpine Racing was released for mobile phones on January 30, 2006, followed by Bode Miller Alpine Skiing for PlayStation 2 and Windows. In 2006 Miller was the subject of a biographical film, Flying Downhill, which looks at the people and the place he comes from, and where exactly each fits within his philosophy.

Endorsement and sponsors

Miller has used a variety of skis during his World Cup career. He skied on Fischer through the 2002 season, switched to Rossignol for two seasons (2003 & 2004), then Atomic for the following two (2005 & 2006). In June 2006, he switched to Head, along with Hermann Maier of Austria and Didier Cuche of Switzerland.

In May 2007, Miller broke away from the U.S. Ski Team and formed his independent "Team America" for the 2008 season. This allowed him more control of his training, equipment, staff, and sponsors. With fewer distractions, increased autonomy and responsibility, Miller improved his focus and won his second overall title. However, the next season (2009) was the worst of his career, and Miller folded Team America after its conclusion.

Other sports

Bode while playing for the Nashua Pride in 2007.

In 2002, Miller won ABC Sports' Superstars competition, a televised event that pits athletes from different sports against one another in a series of athletic contests. In 2009, he competed in a Superstars team competition, which paired an athlete with a celebrity. Miller was paired with Paige Hemmis and they finished in second place.

On July 29, 2006, Miller signed a one-day contract to play baseball for the Nashua Pride (Canadian-American League). He went 0–2 with two strikeouts, however he did make an acrobatic catch in left field, which earned national attention by being featured by ESPN, among others. The team said it would donate at least $5,000 from ticket sales for the game to Miller's Turtle Ridge Foundation, which will give the money to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

On July 23, 2007, Miller again signed a one-day contract, to play the first three innings July 24, 2007, for the Nashua Pride, to raise money for charity.

In January 2010, Miller announced that he would be competing for a spot in the 2010 US Open through the new national playoff system introduced by the USTA. The winner of the men's and women's playoff championships will receive a wild-card entry into the Open qualifying tournament from August 24 to 27.

Personal life

He has a daughter, Neesyn Dacey, who was born in February 2008. She is known by her middle name, which Miller chose for her. "My daughter's name is Neesyn Dacey but everyone calls her Dacey. Her mom chose Neesyn and I chose Dacey after she was born. The mother is a good friend of mine who I was seeing a while ago. We are no longer together."

He dated professional log roller Lizzie Hoeschler in 2002.

World Cup victories

Season titles

Season	Discipline
2003	Combined
2004	Giant Slalom
	Combined
2005	Overall
	Super-G
2007	Super-G
2008	Overall
	Combined

Race victories

32 total wins (7 downhill, 5 Super G, 9 giant slalom, 5 slalom, 6 combined)

Date	Location	Race
9 December 2001	Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
10 December 2001	Madonna di Campiglio	Slalom
6 January 2002	Adelboden	Slalom
22 January 2002	Schladming	Slalom
22 December 2002	Alta Badia	Giant Slalom
4 January 2003	Kranjska Gora	Giant Slalom
26 October 2003	Sölden	Giant Slalom
22 November 2003	Park City	Giant Slalom
11 January 2004	Chamonix	Combined
25 January 2004	Kitzbühel	Combined
15 February 2004	St. Anton	Slalom
28 February 2004	Kranjska Gora	Giant Slalom
24 October 2004	Sölden	Giant Slalom
27 November 2004	Lake Louise	Downhill
28 November 2004	Lake Louise	Super-G
3 December 2004	Beaver Creek	Downhill
12 December 2004	Val d'Isère	Giant Slalom
13 December 2004	Sestriere	Slalom
11 March 2005	Lenzerheide	Super-G
3 December 2005	Beaver Creek	Giant Slalom
16 March 2006	Åre	Super-G
1 December 2006	Beaver Creek	Downhill
15 December 2006	Val Gardena	Super-G
20 December, 2006	Hinterstoder	Super-G
13 January, 2007	Wengen	Downhill
29 December, 2007	Bormio	Downhill
13 January, 2008	Wengen	Downhill
20 January, 2008	Kitzbühel	Combined
27 January, 2008	Chamonix	Super Combined
3 February 2008	Val d'Isère	Super Combined
1 March 2008	Kvitfjell	Downhill
15 January 2010	Wengen	Super Combined

References

• Miller, Bode (2005). Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun. Villard Books. ISBN 1-4000-6235-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Bode Miller at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation
• FIS-ski.com – World Cup season standings – Bode Miller – 1998–2009
• Ski-db.com – results – Bode Miller
• Bode Miller at IMDb
• SkiSpace.com – skiing social networking site – founded by Bode Miller
• Bode Miller Race Photos – Zimbio high-res photos of Bode Miller
• Bode Miller's Blog – Universal Sports

Profiles

• bode-miller at Team USA (archived)
• NBC Olympics.com – NBCOlympics.com – videos, photos, results

Articles

• "Bode", Bob Simon Profiles America's Top-Ranked Skier CBSNews.com, Jan 2006
• "Bode By Jake" – Blog by Miller's best friend about their Olympic adventures
• "I have way more than Bode has as far as a life" – Daron Rahlves fires back at teammate Miller's comments, MSNBC, Feb 2006
• "The Heroism of Bode Miller" Candide's Notebooks, Feb 2006
• "When Fame and Talent Collide" The New York Times, Feb 2006
• "Lovin' Bode no matter what" – AspenTimes.com, Mar 2006
• "Deconstructing Bode" – HallOfFameMagazine.com
• "Bode Miller To Go Independent of US Ski Team" – Skiracing.com reports on Bode's decision to leave the national team. May 2007

Videos

• "Miller Trades Technique for High Speed" – NewYorkTimes.com
• "Interviews, race footage and TV commercials" – BroadbandSports.com
• "Bode Miller Finally Wins Olympic Gold"--AP Winter Games.com