vid of bode miller on 2008 Kitzbühel Downhill

[SkiDork]

All of that was expectations of THE PRESS, not Bode.

I have to refer you to the book again~! In the book, which was published in 2005, he almost predicted what he was going to do in Torino right there in the first eight pages of its Prologue! The part of the book he might have written.

The book's prologue begins with the Olympic oath:
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

Referring to Salt Lake 2002, he he goes on to say,
"I was in Salt Lake City to have fun and to win, which is my attitude in every race I run. Not for the medals, but for the moment. If I win a medal it adds to the fun, but not by much. That said, if I don't win anything at all, I still have fun. Otherwise it would have been a long, hard road."

and later,
"I speak for myself and no one else. I'm laid-back about medals and awards, but the US SKi Team is definitely not. Its front office is interested in medals and you can understand why. In contests where the winners and losers are separated by hundredths of a second, there's virtually never a dispute over who won. Medals are a nice solid, objective standard that they can measure their business model by. Napoleon invented medals; he found you could pay people with them instead of money. It still works.

"The size of the win is all but immaterial. Race results are measured in units of time humans can't perceive. A huge one or two second victory is interesting and exhilarating and weirds out everyone's FIS points, but is worth 100 World Cup points, no more or no less than a squeeker. If I win a race by a couple hundreds of a second, it may have been because I was reaching over the finish line, grasping at it. I win for having longer arms than the other guy? What's that got to do with skiing? Medals, and even finishes, when the times are so proximate, don't measure much. I've seen it so unimaginably close that they ought to give out all golds. Or all bronzes.

"...we ski race six months of the year, every year, on the WC. Forty races plus four more ant the national championships at the end of the season. When it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, we train in New Zealand and Chile, where it is winter. That's a lot of skiing. Consequently, you have on days and off days, and sometimes the Olympics fall on an off day. It's the law of averages.

Interesting.

Olympic legends, like Tomba, though. IMHO. Thats the stuff of dreams. I was hoping for another Tomba-esque olympics from him. (not the press, but me based on following his WC dominance). Oh well, I guess he's a lot different than Alberto.

 

[deadheadskier]

I beg to differ with you. It take a huge level of skill and strengh to make some of those turns at those speeds. Vitually all of those people you think you think could do that would be in the fence on the hard right turn 12 seconds into that run.

No where did I say that Bode isn't a strong athlete with major skills. I think this is very true of all World Cup skiers.

The point I was making is that when you look at the best, the most dominant World Cup skiers over the course of history, it takes not only an amazing skill set, but also a few screws loose.

Herman Maier, Alberto Tomba, Bode, Doug Lewis - all of them great skiers, but also all of them seemed to have a bit of craziness to them. I think that's what has put such skiers over the top.

 

[thinnmann]

No where did I say that Bode isn't a strong athlete with major skills. I think this is very true of all World Cup skiers.

The point I was making is that when you look at the best, the most dominant World Cup skiers over the course of history, it takes not only an amazing skill set, but also a few screws loose.

Herman Maier, Alberto Tomba, Bode, Doug Lewis - all of them great skiers, but also all of them seemed to have a bit of craziness to them. I think that's what has put such skiers over the top.

“If you want to win anything- a race, yourself, your life- you have to go a little berserk” ~George Sheehan

 

[campgottagopee]

I am 2/3 through Bode's autobiography - and now I am beginning to understand why and how he skis as he does. Lucky thing he didn't really write it - it is really a well told story by an excellent writer, Jack McEnany. Bode did write the preface, though, where he says, "I'm not even going to read this book."

Anyway it is not as simple as his technique & his training - he skis fast because of the way he lived from age 2-20. And because of the way his grandparents and parents lived. This is difficult to explain in a short post - but read the book and you will grok it.

TOTALLY agree---I read his book last year and have a clearer view of why he is/does things the way he does. After the book I have a HUGE amount of respect for the dude. He does what's important to him and only for him. I think a lot of people especially pro atheletes can learn a lot from his way of thinking. He skis for the true love of the sport......

 

[snoseek]

He really is an amazing racer. I hope he stays safe.

 

[thinnmann]

I saw it on the canadian channel up here. The race was on and I knew bode did well so I wathced for a while dosing off. I thought I was dreaming the way he came around the bend and went up the snow fence and kept going. The man is crazy... crazy good

From Bode's Blog:

It wasn't easy to stay on my feet when I hit the wall in Kitzbuhel. I was off the last roller a little bit awkward but didn't think I had any real problem until I was really going into and against the fence. I thought I was going to be able to pull it off. But I hit two bumps pretty late and then once one ski got up on the fence, it's really super slow because it catches your ski and starts turning you into the fence. I had no time at all really, maybe a couple hundredths of a second -- I was going to get pulled into the fence with my head and going to roll -- but was able to get my other foot up there just so I didn't rotate. I didn't really change much for the rest of the run. Obviously you try to ski a little more aggressively, but I ski aggressively anyway and it's not really worth it to take much more of a risk so I attacked it the way I usually do. But that mistake was very costly either way. It took a lot off my time.​

(Thanks to marcski for leading me to that site)