Miller’s Rally Second to One

U.S. Alpine ski officials can now chuck those Groucho masks, cancel witness protection plans, come out from their chalets and finally join this red, white and blue medals party.

They can do this because Bode Miller didn’t get held up in security and made his second Olympic start.

Uncle Sam’s otherwise agitated Alpine team saved a little more face Thursday and Miller is the man who saved it.

Eight days after providing the home country its only Alpine moment with his come-from-behind silver performance in men’s combined, Miller played Comeback Kid again to take the silver medal in giant slalom.

“This may be the biggest achievement of my life, to ski the way I skied today,” Miller said.

Stephan Eberharter, racing his last Olympic race and still trying to escape the shadow of teammate Hermann Maier, stamped his name in Austrian ski racing history by ice-dusting the field in the first run and then cruising to the gold with a two-run time of 2 minutes 23.28 seconds.

“Finally I have gotten the gold,” Eberharter said. “It was my last chance to get one.”

Miller, in seventh place after the morning run, skied the fastest second run to jump six racers into second place, .88 of a second behind Eberharter. Norway’s Lasse Kjus finished third with a time of 2:24.32, and added a bronze medal to the silver he won in the downhill.

Eberharter, 32, completed his Olympic box set after winning silver in the super-giant slalom and third in the downhill. He also earned a silver in giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Games, finishing second to Maier.

Eberharter was crushed after losing the super-G gold medal by a tenth of a second to Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt, and would never have guessed his crowning achievement would come in giant slalom, his third-best discipline.

“I didn’t expect gold here; I didn’t expect anything here,” Eberharter said. “Today it worked. Today I’m the lucky one.”

Miller, a 24-year-old from New Hampshire, became the first American male to win two Alpine medals in the same Olympics since Tommy Moe in 1994.

His style on the slopes has been described as unique and unorthodox.

“He has, how do you say, a crazy style in skiing,” Eberharter said of Miller. “But he’s fast, and that’s all that counts.”

With a victory in Saturday’s slalom, in which he will be the favorite, Miller can become the first American Alpine racer to win three medals in one Olympics.

“That means the Americans have had bad luck in the Olympics,” Miller said, downplaying the prospects. “We’ve had people capable of doing that before. It’s never been done, but I think it’s just a roll of the dice. I don’t know, but I think my chances are good going into slalom.”

Thursday’s second giant slalom run was about as good as it gets in gate racing. The top 15 racers from the morning run race in reverse order, meaning Eberharter skied last among the top group.

Miller stood in seventh place, yet only .17 of a second separated him from a silver medal.

Miller had to go all out to get a medal and crossed the finish line in first place, but then had to wait out the last six racers, all of whom had better first-run times.

“I did what I could do; I was done,” Miller said. “It’s completely out of my hands at that point. I just get to sit and watch.

“It was a lot of fun. It was fun watching those guys ski, because the situation provokes good skiing, but it also provokes mistakes.”

Misstep by misstep, Miller climbed the ladder.

He moved to sixth when Italian Alexander Ploner skied out, and all the way to fourth when Austrians Benjamin Raich and Christoph Gruber couldn’t top Miller’s time.

Miller clinched the bronze when Kjus, skiing third to last, checked in .16 of a second slower. Bronze turned to no worse than silver when Italy’s Massimiliano Blardone dropped to eighth after his slow second run.

To win gold, Miller needed a major mistake by Eberharter, who had almost a one-second advantage entering his second run.

Eberharter, though, put down a run only .03 of a second slower than Miller’s and easily won the gold.

Miller’s medal only added to his growing seat-of-his-pants legend. Last week, in the combined, he pulled out a silver after being 15th after the downhill and fifth after the first slalom run.

“That’s not the plan at the beginning of the day,” Miller joked of his comebacks.

After Eberharter came through the finish line, Miller was one of the first to congratulate him. He understood how much it meant for the Austrian to secure his first gold medal in his last Olympic race.

“He’s been a little bit overshadowed in the past by Hermann and some of the other Austrians,” Miller said of Eberharter.

“But the guy comes to win every day.”

Miller said he felt honored to be sandwiched between Eberharter and Kjus on the medals podium.

“Both those guys are at the top of their sports,” Miller said.

Eberharter’s Olympic medal was his fourth; Kjus garnered his fifth Olympic medal to go with 10 world championship medals.

Five years ago, the 19-year-old Miller made his World Cup debut in a race at Park City. He was 69th after the first run and finished 11th.

“I’ve come a long way in five years,” Miller said.

Who can say what the next five years will bring? Miller has already single-handedly bailed out the U.S. Alpine program.

Before the Games, U.S. Ski and Snowboard President Bill Marolt had predicted 10 medals for his athletes. Miller’s silver was the 10th, but only the second in Alpine.

“We’ve just been dragging along,” Marolt said of his Alpine team. “We wanted to deliver on that goal and get the monkey off our back.”

With Picabo Street retiring after finishing 16th in the women’s downhill, the U.S. team was looking for a new star to fill the void.

Miller appears to be that man.

“A new legend is being built right before our eyes,” USSA Vice President Alan Ashley said.