He’s No Flop, but Will He Be Super?

There’s a parlor game being played in the mountains called: Where has Bode been?

The usual answers:

1: At the Tabata Discotheque.

2: Sleeping it off in his RV.

3: Not on the medal stand.

After a week in Turin and two men’s Alpine skiing events, Ted Ligety leads the U.S. men’s team in gold medals and Bode Miller leads it in rumors.

Ligety had a killer run.

Miller had a killer hangover.

Bad-boy Bode has already been written off by several American columnists.

One dubbed him the “undisputed buffoon” of the Turin Games. Another described him as “a goofball on skis.”

Because of the silly things he says, Miller is given less quarter than nice-guy Daron Rahlves, who finished 10th in the downhill to Miller’s fifth.

Rahlves, for what it’s worth, was the favorite in downhill, not Miller.

And there still is time for Miller to turn the tables at Turin, but he’d better get a move on, starting with today’s super-giant slalom at Sestriere Borgata.

Miller has three events left to ski: super-G, giant slalom and slalom. He could win medals in all three, with GS probably his best shot at gold.

Miller’s next Olympic medal will be his third. To put this in perspective, no other Alpine skier in American history has won more than two.

When you get past the obvious about Miller -- he looks out of shape, he probably has closed a bar or two, he deserves to get ripped -- no one here is complaining about his effort.

“He’s skiing as good or better than he has all year,” U.S. men’s Coach Phil McNichol said after Miller was disqualified for straddling a gate in Tuesday’s combined. That’s the same McNichol who at one point last month wondered publicly whether Miller should be on the team.

When Miller said on “60 Minutes” he’d skied drunk, Bill Marolt, head of the U.S. Skiing and Snowboard Assn., flew to Switzerland to extract an apology.

This week, though, Marolt says, “Bode has created a lot of interest in our sport.”

Marolt would not address rumors about Miller’s late-night carousing.

Truth is, the hype about Miller before the Games probably exceeded the reality. He was a medal contender in all five Alpine events, but the defending World Cup overall champion has won only one race on the circuit this year. He failed to finish in five of the seven slaloms he entered. He wasn’t having that good a year.

Is Miller a failure?

He missed a medal in the downhill by 0.11 of a second. He picked a good line and skied fast.

“I was really shocked he didn’t medal,” McNichol said. “Really shocked.”

Miller then won the downhill portion of the combined event and was leading after the first run of slalom until he was disqualified.

Miller didn’t make any more friends when he quipped afterward, “At least I don’t have to go all the way down to Torino” for the medal ceremonies.

Yet, he has been generally available to the media after races, rode with an Italian boy up a chairlift and even came out to address his DQ in the combined.

McNichol says Miller is “an eyelash” from having two medals.

“He did everything right,” McNichol said after the men’s combined event. “He came to the hill first thing in the morning. He was rested, he was focused. Really fired up.”

It’s never easy getting a read on where Miller’s head is.

He did sleep until 9:45 the morning of the noon downhill and passed on doing a final inspection. He said he knew the course. He finished fifth. Rahlves got up early, inspected the course, and finished 10th.

“I’m as prepared for these races as you can be,” Miller said. “I came out in the downhill and was ready to be on the podium. I had a couple of small things go not my way and ended up just off.... I’m prepared to ski well in all the events I’m in. It’s just a matter of execution. You still have to execute, even if you’re absolutely prepared.”

Miller has earned his reputation as skiing’s enfant terrible, but as far as the actually racing is concerned, he really hasn’t been half bad.