Veteran American ski racer Bode Miller has posted an impressive 32 World Cup career ski racing victories in his storied career, and earlier in 2010 Winter Olympics he added a silver and bronze medals to the two silvers he won at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. But Olympic gold had eluded him.
Until Sunday (Feb. 21), that is.
The mercurial Miller finally added Olympic gold to his resumé by winning the men's super combined at Whistler Creekside, skiing the second-best slalom time of the day after finishing fourth best in the downhill.
The race was decided when Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who led by 39 hundredths of a second after the downhill, lost time when he side-slipped wide around a gate in the middle of the slalom course, then missed a gate and skied of the course, drawing a huge cheer from the large American contingent in the crowd.
Ivica Kostelic of Croatia captured the silver medal, finishing 33 hundredths of a second behind Miller. Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland, a distant cousin of Swiss skiing legend Pirmin Zurbriggen, took the bronze, four-tenths of a second back.
Miller, 32, seems to have suddenly found his form at these Olympics. After not having won a World Cup event this season, he captured a bronze medal at the downhill last week and a silver in the super-G on Friday (Feb. 19).
On Sunday, he said he was feeling drained going into the slalom start but was able to muster something extra.
Miller said the energy of the racers at the Games has been "very high," adding that he has fed off of that positive vibe.
"It feels really cool to not have anything in the gas tank and to just be able to feed off the energy of the crowd and the Olympics," he said.
"It's unbelievably challenging to let all that other stuff go and race like you did when you were a kid. That's just a very special feeling."
Asked about the potential for retirement after these Games, Miller said, "It feels really good when I race the way I have here; it just feels awesome. It seems like it would be pretty stupid to give that up if I can still do it.
"I don't know what my plan is, really," he added. "Having already retired once, I came back and I think this (the Olympics) was the reason.
Ryan Semple was the top Canadian in Sunday's event, finishing 15th. Whistlerite Michael Janyk, a slalom specialist, finished 42nd in the downhill but tied for the third-fastest time in the slalom, 51.02 seconds.
Janyk, Canada's best hope for a medal in the slalom, has only skied a handful of competitive downhill runs this season but that he wanted to race on Sunday to get the feel of going hard in a slalom run in front of the home crowd.
Janyk will not ski the giant slalom on Tuesday (Feb. 23), but will save himself for his specialty event on Saturday (Feb. 27), the final event on the alpine racing schedule.
"I wanted to get a run in on the snow, No. 1, and No. 2 to feel the pressure of the crowd a little bit," he said, adding that he thinks he accomplished that task.
"I got submersed in the pressure a little bit and that was good. I can take a lot of confidence from this race into Saturday."
Canadians Louis-Pierre Helie and Tyler Nella finished 30th and 32nd, respectively.
