Miller Returns U.S. to Top of the World

Bode Miller has no fear of icy slopes or breathtakingly rapid downhill plunges, but the trappings of success stop him in his tracks.

On the day the rural New Hampshire native became the first U.S. skier in 22 years to win the overall World Cup title, Miller said he might skip next year’s Turin Olympics because he doesn’t want to become an American idol and compromise his freedom.

Needing only two top-15 finishes in the season’s final two races to hold off Austria’s Benni Raich, Miller blazed to a second-place finish in a giant slalom at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, on Saturday in a combined time of 2 minutes 11.19 seconds. With today’s slalom finale remaining, Miller maintained the lead he’d held all season and led Raich by an unassailable 204 points, matching a feat last accomplished in 1983 by Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney.

Austria’s Stephan Goergl won the race by 0.68 of a second and Raich won the overall giant slalom title, but Miller had won the super-giant slalom title on Friday. “I’m not a very objective-based athlete, and this is one of the goals I felt was worth writing down,” Miller said.

His victories in the downhill and super-G at the world championships at Bormio, Italy, added to his 2002 Olympic silver medals in the giant slalom and combined, indicate fulfillment of the promise he showed as a 3-year-old at Cannon Mountain. He’s a superstar in Europe and could enjoy the same status in the U.S. if he continued his success at the Olympics.

Not so fast, he said Saturday, reiterating plans to establish a tour that would compete with the World Cup circuit run by the international ski federation (FIS) and possibly sit out the Turin competition.

“The Olympics are a great event these days if you want to get worldwide recognition,” he told a group of reporters by phone from Switzerland. “In my mind, the whole idea of the Olympics is a pure sports event and venue. The more I’ve been there and know about it and have seen it, it’s becoming less and less [pure].

“If I go in there and ski well and win a bunch of gold medals it would affect my life in the U.S. That’s something I’m going to have to consider.”

Miller has never felt inclined to go with the pack. He and teammate Erik Schlopy started a trend by renting an apartment in Europe to anchor themselves during the long international ski season, and he now travels in a motor home.

He’s also set apart by his style, which is usually described as brilliant but reckless. Mahre, who called Saturday “a great day for American skiing,” called Miller’s slalom tactics “poor” and said his season “was so-so in a lot of respects.”

Miller won six of the first eight races that he finished, but only one other World Cup race in the next 12. He struggled in the slalom, where he won the only time he finished in eight Cup races in that discipline.

Miller “likes to be his own person,” Mahre said from Deer Valley, Utah, where he and his twin, Steve, operate a ski training center. “The key is I’ve always felt he can be so much better than he is.... He’s had a lack of consistency this season. He finished one of seven or eight slaloms. He started off on fire and kind of went in the tank.”

Miller, who has a cool relationship with Mahre, blamed some of his slalom woes on bad boots. “I want to try to win [today],” he said. “I’ve still got something to prove in the slalom.”

But he doesn’t feel compelled to race in Turin if the price is being consumed by a celebrity-fixated public. He cited Michael Jackson and Britney Spears as examples of people who have become victims of fame.

“In general the view in the U.S. is that to be rich and famous is the model,” he said. “People in the U.S. still determine and get their ideas and goals from that. Ask someone rich and famous, and they would for sure trade it in for anonymity....

“That’s one of the things that’s depressing. I have some perspective on this. We’re still, I believe, working off the old sentiments and philosophy from the Depression, from our parents and grandparents. You’re much better off making $80,000 to $120,000 and having a job than making a few million and essentially giving up your privacy.”

Miller plans to compete in the U.S. Alpine championships, from March 31 to April 5 at Mammoth Mountain, and then immerse himself in attracting sponsors and TV support for his rival tour. Racing at Turin wouldn’t necessarily help his quest, he said.

“I have to think there’s value in me going to the Olympics,” he said. “If it’s to become famous and make more money, or if it’s to compete in a really pure athletic event. I have doubts the Olympics will be that for me.... I’m questioning where my motives are supposed to come from. It it’s to figure out if I’m the best ski racer in the world, I think I’ve proved that.

“If my motivation is there, I will [go]. If not, I won’t go.”

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Miller Facts

* Name: Samuel Bode Miller.

* Born: Oct. 12, 1977, in Franconia, N.H.

* Height / Weight: 6 feet 2, 210 pounds.

* Equipment: Atomic skis.

* Medals: Two Olympic medals (silver in giant slalom and combined, Salt Lake City, 2002); five world championship medals (gold in combined and giant slalom, and silver in super-G, St. Moritz, 2003; gold in downhill and super-G, Bormio, 2005).

* World Cup: Overall champion 2004-05; second overall 2002-03; giant slalom champion 2003-04; super-G champion 2004-05; 19 World Cup wins (eight giant slalom, five slaloms, two combined, two downhills, two super-Gs)

* Milestones: The fifth man, after Pirmin Zurbriggen, Marc Girardelli, Guenther Mader and Kjetil-Andre Aamodt, to post wins in all five events: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined. He had wins in all four disciplines -- downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom -- in the shortest time, 16 days.

What’s Next

Miller plans to compete at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Mammoth Mountain with opening ceremonies scheduled for April 1. A look at dates of other selected events:

* April 1: Men’s and women’s national downhill.

* April 2: Men’s and women’s

super-G.

* April 3: Men’s and women’s slalom.

* April 4: Women’s giant slalom.

* April 5: Men’s giant slalom.