Bode Miller cashes out on season, speed team to feel loss

Bode Miller has thrown in the towel on the season and the U.S. speed team is facing World Cup races at Kvitfjell, Norway and at World Cup finals with one downhill skier, Steven Nyman, who has made the top 30 in a World Cup downhill this season. Ted Ligety has also scored in Cup downhills this year.

Miller’s late decision to skip the final two sets of races shouldn’t be too surprising. Over the past two seasons he has also stopped short of completing the six month marathon of the World Cup.  At 33, after years of skiing in all disciplines, he has registered 380 World Cup starts, 40 more than 36 year old Didier Cuche by example.

By Bode Miller standards, 2011 wasn’t a great season. He had no win for the second time since 2002 (he missed the top step in 2009 as well) and three podiums, a second at Kitzbuehel in downhill and thirds in the Munich city event parallel and at Hinterstoder in super G.

He told the U.S. ski team he was electing to spend the additional time with his daughter in San Diego.
With no titles on the line, and little to gain by competing, his judgment seems sound.

For the U.S. downhill/super G team, however, the result is all but crippling. The squad has been hit hard by injuries. Marco Sullivan sustained a head injury in a training crash at Bormio in December, Andrew Weibrecht injured his shoulder training slalom at Hinterreit in December and Travis Ganong broke his hand in the World Championship downhill at Garmisch in February. The team for training today at Kvitfjell included Nyman as the only first seed (top 30) skier. Also entered in the training run (canceled by heavy snow described as “a very thick vanilla yellow yogurt storm” by Swede Hans Olsson) were Ligety, Wiley Maple, Erik Fisher and Tommy Ford.

There is little concern at this point that Miller might be considering retirement. When asked about the possibility at Garmisch, Ligety responded with surprise, saying it was not something he had previously even considered. “I have this feeling that Bode will keep going,” he said. “I think he still likes it, that he still has enjoyment of it and I think he still feels that he can be competitive. You never know Bode, obviously, but I think he still has some milage left.”