Miller’s Time Kind of Special

Watching Bode Miller work the slopes Wednesday was like watching a guy trying to wiggle out of a straitjacket.

In an Olympic Alpine event in which a skier needs to nail two of three runs to have a chance--one downhill run in the morning and two slaloms after lunch--Bode botched the first two, nearly killing himself in the downhill portion and then kicking himself later after turning in only the fifth-fastest time in the first slalom.

Bode Miller? The world’s fastest gate racer? Fifth?

Yet then, with a second-run slalom that was immediately forwarded to ski racing annals, Miller nearly made up a whopping 2.44-second deficit on one of the greatest racers of all time and stole the silver medal in Alpine combined before a stunned crowd.

Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt, skiing last in the second slalom, held off Miller to win the gold, his sixth Olympic medal, with a three-race time of 3 minutes 17:56. Miller finished only .28 of a second behind at 3:17:84, with Austria’s Benjamin Raich taking the bronze with a time of 3:18.26.

Aamodt and everyone else who witnessed it couldn’t believe Miller’s sizzling 49.73 time in the second-run slalom might almost wipe out a commanding lead. Aamodt figured he could side-step down the mountain and win.

“I thought 2.44 should have been enough,” he said. “But it was very tight in the end.”

Aamodt secured his record 16th medal in international competition, yet you sensed Wednesday marked a torch being passed, from skiing’s present to its future.

Aamodt gushed about Miller afterward, comparing him to a young Alberto Tomba, which is like telling a singer he sounds like Sinatra.

“I’ve never seen anybody ski so fast, like he’s doing,” Aamodt said. “He’s revolutionized the way of skiing as I see it.”

Miller’s last run dropped jaws. Even people who don’t know ski racing that well could see it was fast. Those who do know the sport put it in historical context.

“It’s like scoring six touchdowns in the fourth quarter,” Bill Marolt, U.S. Ski Assn. chief executive, said of Miller’s comeback.

Steve Porino, a former member of the U.S. ski team who is doing Olympic commentary for NBC, said Miller’s run “was an 11” on a scale of one to 10.

The Alpine combined used to be a throw-away event, a complicated paper calculation for races that weren’t even raced on the same day.

This is the first time in the Olympics all three combined races were lumped together in morning and afternoon shifts, and it proved wildly popular with fans and emotionally and physically draining for the skiers.

Miller, 24, nearly lost it all on the morning downhill, doing his best impression of Franz Klammer’s white-knuckle downhill run to gold at Innsbruck in 1976.

Approaching the bottom of the Grizzly course, in a section called “Slingshot,” Miller lost control on a sweeping left turn and fell on his left hip at 55 mph.

“It was a crash,” Miller said. “My skis weren’t touching the ground.”

Miller was headed toward a group of coaches when he somehow extracted himself from disaster. It was athleticism and instinct that saved the former New Hampshire state tennis champion.

“If it wasn’t a life-threatening situation, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off,” he said. “That was definitely above and beyond what I normally do, because I felt like if I didn’t I probably would have died.”

Marolt couldn’t believe what he saw.

“That was a phenomenal recovery going at the speed he’s going,” he said. “People don’t understand, that course is a vertical skating rink.”

Miller survived but finished the downhill portion in 15th place, 2.44 seconds behind Aamodt.

Miller still believed he could make up the time in the slalom, his specialty, yet a sloppy first run lifted him to fifth place but still 2.44 seconds behind Aamodt.

Asked to rate his chances, Miller scoffed, “I don’t rate it in odds, I’m not Vegas.”

But he also offered, “I’m going to go full gas in the second run, I think I still have a chance.”

Miller said he was not nervous at the start gate before his second run. He said it was the most comfortable place he could be.

“It’s the equivalent of looking at a great golf course if you’re a golfer,” he said, “Or a playground as a kid.”

Miller popped out of the gate looking to “salvage the day.”

He salvaged silver.

“That was everything I had,” he said. “I skied my heart out today.”

Miller took the lead when he crossed the finish line, yet had to wait for the four skiers with faster times to race before he’d know if his time would stand up.

Austria’s Rainer Schoenfelder had an advantage of .76 on Miller, but it didn’t hold. When Austria’s Raich couldn’t keep the .77-second lead he had, Miller clinched the bronze.

Then came Norway’s Lasse Kjus, in second place behind Aamodt and one of the best combined skiers ever. But Kjus came up slow on his second run and dropped to fourth, assuring Miller the silver.

Only Aamodt was able to hold Miller at bay, barely.

It was a victory Aamodt desperately wanted--his first Olympic gold medal since winning the super-giant slalom at the 1992 Albertville games.

Aamodt, 30, secured his place in history. No male skier has won more Olympic medals.

If this is not the end of the line for the Norwegian, he is fast approaching it.

For Miller, sitting to Aamodt’s left at the postrace news conference, the future was unfolding. With golden opportunities next week in giant slalom and slalom, Miller stands a chance to win three medals.

Before he races again here, Miller will race to Los Angeles to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

A star is born.

Miller has a lot in common with the young Picabo Street. Miller too has been known to be headstrong and obstinate, yet he and his skis seem to be carving turns toward common ground.

“He’s a phenom,” Marolt said. “He’s one of those special kids that comes along. He’s just willing to go right at it, all the time. He’s willing to put it all on the line.”

Marolt, a former ski racer himself and a member of the 1964 Olympic team, said Miller’s second slalom was one of the best slaloms ever tracked on snow.

“That’s as good as you’re going to see,” he said. “He didn’t make a mistake.”