Good article on Bode Miller...

[Endlessseason]

Sports - USATODAY.com


Brash American poised to win skiing crown

Wed Mar 9, 6:50 AM ET Sports - USATODAY.com


By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY

Winning races or crashing through fences, charming the hordes of kids in Europe who adore him or peevishly dismissing the ski journalists who annoy him, astounding veteran skiers with his otherworldly skills or infuriating his coaches with his bullheadedness, Bode Miller has arrived on top of the skiing world.




This week, if he can stay on his feet (a big if, lately) in the season-ending World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, the talented, charismatic, unpredictable Miller could become the first U.S. skier in 22 years to win the sport's top prize, a World Cup overall season title. (Related item: Breaking down the points race)


It all could come down to the last race of the season, Sunday's slalom, an event in which Miller has failed to finish seven of eight races.


Just as winning the Olympic 100 meters earns the title of "world's fastest," winning the World Cup overall - and the crystal globe that goes with it - earns the title of "world's best skier."


Naturally, Miller, whom some people call one of the most contrary people they've ever met, doesn't see it that way.


"The globe is cool. It's a good trophy and all," Miller says. "But really, for myself and for anyone else who really follows ski racing, I'm already the best ski racer overall this year. I don't think there's any question."


Miller, 27, says he proved it early this season when he won six of the first 10 World Cup races and became the second man to win in all four disciplines - downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom - in one season, accomplishing it in 16 days, to be exact. Says Miller: "It was a trip. ... But it kind of saps your motivation a little bit, too."


Something got sapped because, outside of the gold medals Miller won in downhill and super-G in last month's world championships, which don't count in the World Cup standings, he hasn't won a race since Dec. 13.


Now, U.S. men's coach Phil McNichol says his relationship with the USA's star is strained because of Miller's late-night carousing and insistence on doing it his way - trying to win every race instead of skiing conservatively occasionally to make sure he earns points.


The newest Austrian star, Benjamin Raich, also 27, has used that to his advantage, steadily cutting into Miller's lead. "It's going to be very interesting," former skiing coach and broadcaster Bob Beattie says. "Bode's fading a bit."


Bode's results, that is. Certainly not his popularity.


Might make $3 million this year


Since the World Cup ski tour began in 1966-67, only a few athletes have transcended the mostly European niche sport and become household names:


• France's Jean-Claude Killy, of course, so smooth on and off the slopes.


• Alberto Tomba, the Italian playboy and master of the slalom and giant slalom.


• Picabo Street, the slightly dippy daughter of Idaho hippies and a downhill demon.


• Austria's Hermann Maier, the automaton "Herminator" who couldn't be stopped.



And now Miller, the go-for-broke iconoclast who has connected with Europeans as a hip alternative to the typically bland Euro racers.

"Everybody is crazy about Bode," says Patrick Lang, the World Cup press coordinator and son of Serge Lang, who founded the tour. "They like him to crash, to win, to crash, to win. They like his style. They like his personality. They like that he doesn't give a (darn) if he skis out."

Miller is 6-2, 210 pounds, strong and scruffily handsome in a young John Wayne kind of way. The skiing fans in Europe call him "cowboy" and "hippie" and can't seem to get enough of him. Miller travels from one World Cup site to the next in a custom RV along with a boyhood friend, Jake Serino. When it rolls into town, it's an event. In the finish area of races, Miller is besieged by autograph hounds.

"I guess they like me because I'm more original, more exciting," he says. "And I think I embody a different philosophy about sport and about competition."

The World Cup skiing circuit began Oct. 23 in Soelden, Austria, included stops in Beaver Creek and Aspen, Colo., and ends this weekend in Lenzerheide, where the first men's race is Thursday's downhill at 6:15 a.m. ET. All season long, more than 200 male and female racers have competed for points, awarded to the top 30 finishers, to claim the sport's season titles.

Miller's results and his maverick persona have made him, along with the still-formidable Maier, the most bankable commodity in Alpine skiing.

Miller's income this season from prize money, endorsements and sponsorships should top $3 million, says Lowell Taub, Miller's agent. Over the next 18 months, including the Winter Olympics (news - web sites) next February in Torino, Italy, where Miller could be in the hunt for five medals, his income "might double," Taub says.

Miller has lucrative deals with Atomic skis, an Austrian company that once worked only with Austrian skiers but welcomed Miller aboard this season, and Barilla Pasta, the same Italian company that once partnered with Tomba.

"We're looking to add one or two more long-term partners," Taub says. "Bode's in a position to join Lance Armstrong as a niche sports icon."

Miller always has been a win-or-crash kind of skier, which is one reason he didn't get his first World Cup win until he was 24. But the medals have piled up: two silver medals in the 2002 Olympics, two golds and a silver in the 2003 world championships and two golds in last month's world championships in Bormio, Italy.

But most of the time, it seems that, to Miller, the trophies and victories aren't as important as proving on a given day that he's the fastest dude on the hill.

Former U.S. ski team racer Steve Porino, now a broadcaster for NBC and Outdoor Life Network, says Miller is "the most unconventional guy out there in terms of what he wants at the end of the road. Bode doesn't care if he wins 100 races or 10 races. What he cares about is doing the most amazing thing anyone's ever seen on skis."

That's one area, among others, in which Miller butts heads with his coaches, particularly McNichol.

McNichol, trying to help Miller become the first American to win the overall title since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney in 1983, has great respect for the skier.

But Miller's insistence on trying to win every race has strained their relationship, McNichol says. By going all out to try to be the fastest on the hill, Miller runs a greater risk of crashing. When he doesn't finish, he gets no points, while Raich, a metronomic technician who has finished every one of his races this season and is nicknamed "the anti-Bode," gains ground.

McNichol says he doesn't think Miller is doing everything he can to commit himself to winning the overall title, which McNichol and the U.S. ski team officials see as the big prize. McNichol's complaints: Miller's hesitancy to commit to training sessions, his inconsistent approach to conditioning and his late-night drinking.

"My relationship with Bode is definitely strained right now," McNichol says. The drinking "is definitely an issue for me, and I've told him that. He respects my opinion, but he says it's impossible for him to be on the road and pursue this life without going out and having a good time. And he says if it's not fun, he's not going to do it."

At one point this season, McNichol says, he thought Miller was going out late because he had trouble sleeping. To that, Miller chuckles dismissively. "I sleep like a log," he says. "Phil's a bit dramatic. His agenda is sometimes a little strange. ... I'm pretty careful about that (drinking). Skiing is dangerous enough and hard enough as it is. I don't need to get in the start hut with a hangover."

Whatever happens this week, McNichol says he hopes he and Miller can work together again next season. Bill Marolt, president of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, is confident the strains won't stop Miller from becoming one of the biggest stars in the 2006 Olympics. "Certain talented people, they're just a little more difficult to manage," Marolt says. "Athletes, artists, musicians. They're strong-willed, and that's what makes them great. We have to be prepared to deal with that."

Besides, Marolt just plain likes the guy. "He's got a good spirit," Marolt says. "He's not arrogant. He has a feeling for his teammates, for the organization."

And, bottom line, Miller can ski like no other. "As far as I'm concerned," Beattie says, "he may be the best athlete who has ever skied."

Trying to cope with demands

Growing up in the Easton Valley near Franconia, N.H., Miller frequently would be dropped off by his mother, Jo, at nearby Cannon Mountain Ski Area. The mountain was his babysitter, and he emerged as a self-taught skier who sat too far back on his skis, waved his arms like a rodeo cowboy and, in races, took the riskiest lines.

Miller is perhaps best known for his remarkable recoveries. In the Salt Lake Olympics, in the downhill portion of the combined, he fell to his hip at more than 60 mph and was sliding straight into a fence crowded with fans when he amazingly pushed himself up, made the next gate, finished the race and won a silver medal.

"Nobody has the athleticism he does," Ski Racing magazine's former publisher Gary Black Jr. says. "He can do things that almost nobody except him can get away with."

Miller added to the legend in the world championships in Bormio when he lost his left ski 15 seconds into the downhill portion of the combined, amazingly didn't fall and kept going, pointlessly but impressively, through the rest of the course on one ski.

His coaches, typically, were upset. Why take the risk of injury or fatigue?

The crowd, typically, went wild.

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[Endlessseason]

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Porino says the media barrage around Miller is reminiscent of the frantic days of Tomba-mania in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"The demands on Bode right now are insane," Porino says. "He's trying to do something really significant, and he's doing it under the greatest media pressure that has ever existed in the sport of skiing."

Miller says coping with it has been challenging and frustrating. Often, his mood starts out bright enough, then turns. He's sick of the same questions from the same journalists. He's not thrilled about the sponsor meet-and-greets. Even the autograph sessions with kids he generally enjoys can turn sour.

"Definitely, it's a challenge," he says. "And it's like, 'Hey, I got a challenge for you. See if you can drive this nail through your thigh.' Yeah, it's a great challenge. It's really tough. It takes a lot of mental stability and a lot of mental strength. And at the end of the challenge, if you're successful, all you have is a nail through your thigh. There really isn't any good part to it. I just do the best I can."

It's only going to get more intense next season, when he figures to be one of the biggest stars going into the Torino Olympics.

"I'm hesitant to jump on (a big marketing push) full bore, but I don't think there's going to be much choice," he says. "My sponsors have invested a lot of money in it, and I think they're wanting to capitalize on it. And I've got some pushy agents who are looking to capitalize on it. There's an engine behind me that's pushing me in that direction. If there's ever a time when I'm equipped or capable of dealing with it, it's now.

"Not only that, but I don't have any Olympic gold medals at home. If there's a medal or a trophy worth keeping, that's probably one of them."

[sftc]

Who do you think has a better chance of being at the Olympics next year, Bodie or McNichols? My money is on Bodie and I hope McNichols has his resume up to date.

[Benny Profane]

Newsweek this week:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7102121/site/newsweek/

Bode is cool.

[road trip]

He's an interesting character to say the least. I'll be checking on Sunday's television schedules to see if the race will be broadcast... that would be neat to watch. While Bode talks about not caring if he wins the overall or not, I wonder if he changes his mind in the starting gate. It should be pretty easy to tell by watching how he takes to the course.