Miller, Bode

▪ 2006

      In 2005 Alpine skiing had a new star and the U.S. ski team had its best male skier in two decades, perhaps ever, as Bode Miller claimed the World Cup overall championship. In doing so, he became only the second man in history to win in all four disciplines—slalom, giant slalom (GS), supergiant slalom (super-G), and downhill—during a single season. He was also the first American skier to capture a World Cup overall title since 1983.

      Samuel Bode Miller was born on Oct. 12, 1977, in Easton, N.H., in the heart of the White Mountains. His parents were self-styled hippies who lived deep in the woods in a house with no electricity or running water, and Miller was home schooled until the fourth grade. After his parents divorced, his mother would take him to nearby Cannon Mountain while she worked, often leaving him in the care of the ski school staff. He learned to ski by prowling the mountain every day with various instructors and at the age of 11 began skiing competitively.

      A natural athlete, Miller earned all-state honours in high school in both soccer and tennis and was an avid golfer. He was a promising snowboarder as well, but ultimately he decided to focus on skiing because snowboarding had no clear ladder for advancement. He first made the U.S. ski team in 1998 and competed that year in the Nagano (Japan) Winter Olympics. He tore ligaments in his left knee in a racing crash during the 2001 world championships in St. Anton, Austria, but rebounded in 2002 to collect silver medals in GS and the combined event at the Salt Lake City (Utah) Winter Games.

      Miller went on to post increasingly better results. In 2003 he became the first American to win two golds at a single world championships, capturing the GS and combined titles. He also won three U.S. national titles that year. In 2004 he recorded six World Cup wins en route to taking the GS World Cup title—the first in any discipline by an American man since Phil Mahre won the overall and GS titles in 1983. Miller's phenomenal performances continued into 2005, when he became the only skier in the 39-year history of the World Cup tour to win the first three races of a season. He also picked up two gold medals—in downhill and super-G—at the world championships. In the process, Miller guaranteed that the spotlight would be focused firmly on him as the American skier to watch at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Paul Robbins

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