Miller Tweaks Ankle but Is Expected to Race

U.S. skier Bode Miller, who has failed to win a medal in four Olympic Alpine races, tweaked his left ankle playing basketball Tuesday but is expected to compete in Saturday’s slalom.

“I’ve been told it’s not real serious,” Alpine director Jesse Hunt said Wednesday night after the women’s slalom. “I don’t think it’s going to become a big issue.”

Hunt said it is common for ski racers to play other sports in between World Cup and Olympic races.

“The guys are playing games all the time -- soccer, basketball -- to loosen up and relax,” Hunt said. “ ... That’s not new to our program.”

Miller, the defending World Cup overall champion, probably will end up skiing in all five Alpine disciplines with the slalom being his last chance to win a medal.

Miller finished fifth in the downhill, was disqualified for straddling a gate in the combined, skied out of the super-giant slalom after crashing into a gate, and finished tied for sixth in the giant slalom.

Slalom has not been Miller’s best event lately, as he has failed to finish five of seven slalom races on the World Cup circuit this year.

The last time he won a World Cup slalom was Dec. 13, 2004 ... at Sestriere, on the same hill he will be skiing Saturday.

-- Chris Dufresne

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Bolstered by Sasha Cohen’s performance and the first night of women’s figure skating, NBC got its highest rating of the Winter Olympics -- a 15.5 with a 23 share -- for its prime-time coverage Tuesday night. And the average audience size was 25.1 million viewers, the largest audience of these Olympics so far.

Fox’s “American Idol” had the largest audience of the night, 30 million.

NBC’s audience size peaked at 28.8 million after “Idol” went off the air.

Los Angeles ranked 44th among the nation’s largest markets with a 14.7/23 for the Olympics on Tuesday night.

Salt Lake City ranked No. 1 with a 28.3/41.

-- Larry Stewart