Bode Miller - 0 for 5 In Torino

Huummm - “It’s been an awesome two weeks,” Miller said. “I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level.”

Only medal for Bode is fool’s gold
Failing at the Olympics is forgivable, but getting fatter on beer is not.

For weeks now Nike has advised us to “Join Bode.” Join him where? At the bar? That’s one place you might find Bode Miller after the Turin Games, unless he’s in his motor home, finding new ways to duck all that pressure he put on himself.

Miller is the biggest disappointment in the Winter Olympics, not because of the way he skied the mountain, but the way he acted at the bottom of it. The fact that he didn’t win a medal at these Games, going 0-for-5 in the Alpine events, is beside the point. It’s not the winning, it’s the trying. The point is that he acted like he didn’t try, and didn’t care. Failing is forgivable. Getting fatter on beer while you’re here is not.

If there has been a weaker performance by an American athlete on the international stage than that of Miller, I’m hard pressed to think of one. To hear Miller tell it, he spent more time in Sestriere’s nightclubs than he did in actual competition, which amounted to less than eight minutes. Miller’s final Olympic event, the slalom, lasted all of 16 seconds. He bulled out of the start house, did a couple of quick scrimshaw turns, and promptly straddled a gate. Fair enough — Miller has struggled in the slalom this season, finishing just two of eight races, and it was a tough course. Nine of the top 29 skiers in the competition did not finish. It was Miller’s behavior afterwards that sealed his reputation as the goat of the games. He thrust his hands in the air, stuck out his tongue, and waggled in mock celebration. Then he skied off the course, avoiding the cameras and throngs of people at the bottom of the hill. When Associated Press reporter Jim Litke found him later, he declared, “Man, I rocked.”

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