U.S. flop in giant slalom
ByReuters
Published 20/02/2006 at 11:39 GMT
Bode Miller let his mediocre skiing do the talking once more on Monday when the U.S. men's team failed to win a medal in the giant slalom. Miller moved up from 12th after the first leg to finish joint sixth but is now without a medal in four events at the Games.
ALPINE SKIING Torino 2006 Bode Miller
Image credit: Imago
His team mates Daron Rahlves and Ted Ligety, the surprise combined event gold medallist, fared even worse. Both skied out in the first leg.
Miller did not stop to speak to reporters at any point and it was left to U.S. Alpine skiing director Jesse Hunt to explain his silence.
"I think Bode's talked a lot to the media, maybe more than he should have and I think he's trying to balance it all out and figure it out," Hunt said. "He's always looking for the limits whether it's in ski racing or dealing with the media and certainly he's going to push the boundaries."
Miller, whose last hope of a gold is in the slalom on Saturday, paid for a scrappy first run on Monday and although his second run was better, the damage had been done.
"I think he's of the mind set that he wants to inspire with great skiing and he's not really focused on the results and I think he's going to drive that," added Hunt.
Rahlves squandered his last chance to win an Olympic medal and said: "It's hard to swallow, just knowing this is the last time I'm going to be racing in an event like this."
WEIRD TERRAIN
The 32-year-old finished only 10th in his best event, the downhill, and ninth in the super-G. "I've been three times to the Olympics and haven't medalled. I was flying, ready to go man, but the wheels came off here. I didn't quite put it together.
"It is disappointing because I've been at the top in world championships and World Cups and all that. I just feel like I didn't step up and ski the way I could.
"If I came down, splayed a run and had a big crash, that would have been better than just hacking down, having some trouble and then skiing out missing a gate."
Heavy snow on Sunday had made conditions difficult for all the skiers and Ligety said the start of the course was particularly dicey.
"There's a lot of weird terrain up there," he told reporters at the finish. "It's really hard to ski with the snow on top of the ice. It's definitely made the snow a little inconsistent and it's hard to get a decent edge trying to turn. It's super tough."
Austria's Benjamin Raich won the race, with France's Joel Chenal second and another Austrian, Hermann Maier, taking bronze.
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