Practice Bodes well for Miller
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia, — Back in November, during an intensive block of training in the Colorado mountains, 36-year-old skiing star Bode Miller snuck away to a wind tunnel in California to find ways to improve his aerodynamics.
After a year away from the sport, Miller had shed 20 pounds and found that his body didn’t fold up in the same configuration that it had previously, and he needed to reform his tuck position for downhill — the most glamorous of Alpine skiing’s four main disciplines, and the one where he still lacked a few important trophies.
Three months later, Miller looked nearly unbeatable Saturday in the final training run for the Olympic men’s downhill, securing his status as a gold medal favorite for Sunday’s race on the long and challenging Rosa Khutor course.
Miller was leading the run by 1.03 seconds before taking it easy for the final quarter to conserve his energy and avoid the kind of painful mishaps that befell several racers. One racer bloodied his face crashing off a jump, while another tore ligaments in his knee.
“This course has teeth everywhere,” Miller said after the run, which features big jumps, speeds as high as 85 mph and unforgiving snow that organizers deliberately hardened by injecting water into it last week.
“Race day is always different. It’s going to be hard to stay calm,” he said. “I’m going to be ready. I want to win.”
At 36, this is most likely Miller’s last chance for an Olymmpic gold medal in downhill, a troophy that only three other Ameriicans have ever won: Bill Johnson n (1984), Tommy Moe (1994) and d Lindsey Vonn (2010). He already dy has five Olympic medals in other er events, and has won some of the he most prestigious downhills in the he world.
“When you see guys that are in n the zone, in their prime, whatever, r, I think he’s got that going on right ht now,” said Miller’s teammate Marrco Sullivan. They will be joined by Travis Ganong and Steven Nyman n in representing the United States. .
Miller’s competition will innclude Aksel Lund Svindal of Norrway, Carlo Janka of Switzerland, d, several fast Italians and a proud d Austrian men’s team that is lookking for its first Olympic medal al since 2006 (its shutout at the Vanncouver Games brought about a ree- organization of the coaching staff). ).
Though much has been made de of the four main jumps along the he lower half of the course, the 2014 4 downhill also features a distinctive technical section at the top where racers must carve turns through varied terrain that is cast in shadows by the surrounding peaks. Miller was the fastest racer up there in each of the three training runs this week.
On Saturday, Miller stood up out of his tuck for much of the final section of the course, avoiding the extreme fatigue that sets in for racers by the bottom of one of the longest downhill courses in the world. He wasn’t the only racer to do so.
Ma x Franz of Austria was even more playful, doing a trick on one of the course’s most fearsome jumps, the Russian Trampoline. While flying off that jump at more than 70 mph, Franz reached down and gripped the edge of one of his skis, a trick called a “mute grab.”
Brice Roger of France tore ligaments in his right knee, and Rok Perko of Slovenia crashed off a jump called the Bear’s Brow and bloodied his face.