Bode Short on Believers, New York Daily News

Bode short on believers


BY WAYNE COFFEY
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
New York Daily News

SESTRIERE, Italy - The hippie parents, the backwoods upbringing, the
New Hampshire cabin without electricity or plumbing - they are all part
of the lore surrounding America's best-known skier. But if Bode Miller
isn't careful, says a well-regarded international Alpine skiing
official, he may become best known for his underachievement.
"He could do a lot more with his talent, that's for sure," said Max
Gartner, 47, who is Canada's top Alpine skiing official and has spent
more than two decades working and coaching with the Canadian national
ski team. "We've already seen that if he's dedicated and committed he
could be the ultimate dominant athlete out there."

Miller heads to an Olympic Alpine start house for the fourth time this
morning, at the top of Mt. Sises, some 8,100 feet above sea level, for
the first of the two runs of the giant slalom. It is an event in which
he captured silver four years ago - and won the world championship
three years ago.

The cover boy of these Games heading in, the mercurial Miller is 60%
through his competition schedule and has been even more confounding
than usual. He was the best all-around skier on the planet last year,
and has a fifth-place finish in the downhill, as well as two DNFs, at
these Games. In the combined, he won the downhill portion and was
cruising toward a gold when he straddled a gate and was disqualified.
In Saturday's Super G, he led by 0.22 seconds through the first
interval, then clipped a gate and was spared a wipeout only by his
dazzling athleticism.

Again, he did not finish.

Through it all, late-night Miller sightings around Sestriere have been
a subject of daily musings around the mountain village. The night of
his combined slip-up, he was photographed in a bar cavorting with Tina
Jordan, a former Playmate. Miller has never been one to hide his
partying ways - witness his now-infamous "60 Minutes" interview and his
skiing "wasted" comment - and has been equally forthright about not
skiing to win, or to meet others' expectations, but for the personal
rush of taking on a mountain. Still, ski-circuit insiders - within the
U.S. team and outside of it - believe his inattention to training and
fitness is catching up to him.

"I definitely think he hasn't trained as hard as he should have and as
hard as he can," said Gartner, whose wife, Kerrin-Lee Gartner, was the
upset winner of the Olympic women's downhill in Albertville in 1992.
"He's relying on his natural ability, and thinks he can get away with
all stuff, not preparing properly. But even though his capabilities as
an athlete are unbelievable, it's maybe not quite good enough to carry
him through.

"He hasn't been in the same form as last year. The World Cup is a good
indication of the type of shape and form you are in, and he's just not
the same."

While Miller is third in the overall World Cup rankings, the high place
is more a function of the frequency of his racing than the level of his
results. He has one victory - at a giant slalom in Beaver Creek, Colo.
- and just six podium finishes. A four-time world champion who used to
excel in slaloms, he has finished only two of seven slalom races this
season - and is ranked No.35 in the world in that discipline.

For his part, U.S. skiing coach Phil McNichol has said that Miller has
done some of his best skiing of the season at these Games, only to be
undone by a few untimely mistakes. Bill Marolt, executive director of
U.S. Skiing, declined yesterday to discuss Miller's performance, or his
nocturnal habits.

"I'm not going to react in the middle of the Olympics," Marolt said. "I
don't have anything to say."

Said Gartner, "It's hard for the U.S. leaders and coaches to manage
him. He's very unmanageable. I don't think he listens. It must be
frustrating for his sponsors and suppliers to watch this, because
that's not how you want your athletes to prepare."

Gartner believes what has happened to Miller is good for the sport,
because it shows the importance of hard work, talent notwithstanding.

"If your top skier is getting by and winning even though he's staying
out until three or four in the morning and not preparing, it's hard to
convince the younger guys that they need to be disciplined and work
hard," Gartner said.

For all his issues with Miller's commitment to the sport, Gartner said
Miller is "one of those guys you never know with," and he wouldn't be
shocked to see Miller go out and pull off a medal-winning performance
today - even with the mounting pressure to right himself and live up to
all the magazine covers.

"He has the natural ability and speed to go as fast as anybody,"
Gartner said.

Youssef wrote:
"snip

I know you're probably new to the internets, what with using AOL &
Google to access usenet.

But could you please stop posting entire articles? Anybody with half a
brain can bookmark a page like this and read all the latest:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?M15421CAC


//Walt

Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. Do you have such qualities?

Bode short on believers

BY WAYNE COFFEY
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
New York Daily News

"Yup, that's how little knowledge at work, bias, shallow, and
hypocritical."


taichiskiing

......

"taichiskiing" sed:

Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. [...]

Yes, yes, yes... Howsomever, I would have preferred to see him finish the
run ...


--
BGhouse

"taichiskiing" wrote
Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. Do you have such qualities?

I for one, have done that. Of course, I was on 180 skis, not the big guys he
had. But I have to say it wasn't courage. It was more the opposite: fear of
dying in a horrible wreck. And it wasn't balance per se, but more was
experience of being "chinese downhilled" by my friends. ;-)

JvD wrote:

"taichiskiing" wrote


Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. Do you have such qualities?



I for one, have done that. Of course, I was on 180 skis, not the big guys he
had. But I have to say it wasn't courage. It was more the opposite: fear of
dying in a horrible wreck. And it wasn't balance per se, but more was
experience of being "chinese downhilled" by my friends. ;-)


Some times you need to know when to take a fall.
The recent death at Belleayre on the NASTAR course was caused by
fighting the fall and clipping a tree off course and then smashing face
first into a large block of concrete. He was wearing a helmet. On Friday
it was a little weird to train next to the red stains of the incident.
Of course they put up fencing at that location and required all NASTAR
racers to wear a helmet when they ran the course over the weekend.
I ran a ASRA GS race on Dot Nebel on Saturday that is such a nice trail
for a GS race, almost a long as one of the masters GS races. The total
opposite of Mountain creek which is a 30 second GS or a long NASTAR race.

Now this sick freak is diagnosing Bode as an alcoholic.
Clue time. He isn't. Period. But reality never stopped this loud mouthed
wack job from taking a cheap shot while hiding in anonymity: at least this
freak is consistent.
"ClarenceDarrow" wrote in message
news:MTE0MDQ3MjkwMy5waGF0cGhpbA.1140472903@nulluse r.com...
Ted Waldron wrote:


Here is a list of his accomplishments:

? 2002 Olympic silver medalist combined and giant slalom
? 2005 World Cup overall champion, becoming the first American to win
the title in 22 years; also won the super-G overall title on the season
? 2005 World champion in downhill, super-G
? In 2005, he became the first man since 1989 to win in all four
disciplines in one season
? Won 2004 World Cup overall giant slalom title

Too bad he decided to sit on his laurels. Is that a sign of a true
champion? No.


As Abraham Lincoln said about General Grant's drinking, find out what
he is drinking and send it to all his other generals. I would say the
same thing for someone who has won so many world cup races, and the
honor of being a World Cup champion, make sure other skiers are drinking
it in jiggers.

I love this argument. It's like someone saying about a smoker - oh it
didn't affect him, he
lived to be 80 (w/o smoking he could have lived another 10 years).
Imagine what could be
accomplished without the chemical impairment (and if I recollect WT
Sherman had a lot to do
with the outcome of the Civil War). Maybe I should go into how excessive
alcohol
consumption can ruin performance. Remember Mickey Mantle-Hall of Fame
ballplayer-he
accomplished great things but did he ever come close to his potential?
Even by his own
admission, he destroyed his career by drinking.


It is not if Bode wins or not, it is that we see good and exciting
skiing is what is important, no matter what the nationality or hype.

If you want to blame anyone, blame NBC, they needed the hype of Bode
for ratings.

NBC had nothing to do with all those magazine covers and Miller shooting
off his big mouth.
He wanted the publicity, why else would he have accepted the 60 minute
interview? He wants
the money but none of the responsibility that goes along with this game.
If he didn't want to
play, he shouldn't have accepted all that money. The fact that he has
accepted USST money
(Marolt was able to humble him, why?) means he owes us his best effort and
to be a good
representative of this country.







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BGhouse wrote:
"taichiskiing" sed:

Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. [...]

Yes, yes, yes... Howsomever, I would have preferred to see him
finish the run ...

Yup, what you "preferred" is the/your bias. The reason he got hang up
on the gate was because he tried to cut it too straight a line to make
a better time, (i.e. he was trying too hard,) and you chew he for
trying?

My question remains, how well do you ski?


IS



--
BGhouse

JvD wrote:
"taichiskiing" wrote
Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. Do you have such qualities?

I for one, have done that.

Really? I for one doubt that. Care to elaborate more?

Of course, I was on 180 skis, not the big guys he
had. But I have to say it wasn't courage. It was more the opposite: fear of
dying in a horrible wreck.

If you have fear at that time, there will be a wreck, actually, that's
how most people get wrecked; nevertheless, not what Bode demonstrated.

And it wasn't balance per se, but more was
experience of being "chinese downhilled" by my friends. ;-)

In Chinese Downhill, aka Kungfu Skiing, balance goes with the center of
gravity, just as Bode demonstrated, he didn't miss his balance a bit,
what you see/think he missed is only a gate in an artificial course, a
minor event in the whole domain of skiing. Unless, of course, if you
only look at the flashy medals, you wouldn't see how he strikes for
higher level of skiing.


IS

"taichiskiing" wrote in message
oups.com...
JvD wrote:
"taichiskiing" wrote
Youssef wrote:

Do you ski? Or just like to gossip about it?

Have you not seen how he recoveries the mishap in SG? That is one
superb balance, which requires not just knowledge of skiing and
technical know how, but also courage. Do you have such qualities?

I for one, have done that.

Really? I for one doubt that. Care to elaborate more?

Of course, I was on 180 skis, not the big guys he
had. But I have to say it wasn't courage. It was more the opposite: fear
of
dying in a horrible wreck.

If you have fear at that time, there will be a wreck, actually, that's
how most people get wrecked; nevertheless, not what Bode demonstrated.

And it wasn't balance per se, but more was
experience of being "chinese downhilled" by my friends. ;-)

In Chinese Downhill, aka Kungfu Skiing, balance goes with the center of
gravity, just as Bode demonstrated, he didn't miss his balance a bit,
what you see/think he missed is only a gate in an artificial course, a
minor event in the whole domain of skiing. Unless, of course, if you
only look at the flashy medals, you wouldn't see how he strikes for
higher level of skiing.

In my experience, Chinese Downhill is only accidentally related to KungFu
Skiing.