Bode Miller at Finals: A quote compendium

By Published On: March 14th, 2005Comments Off on Bode Miller at Finals: A quote compendium

Bode Miller at Finals: A quote compendiumThe following are quotes gathered on and around March 12, 2005, the day that Bode Miller became the first U.S. skier to win the World Cup overall title in 22 years:

“”The Olympics are important, but it depends on what you want to accomplish. If you’re looking for mass recognition, the Olympics are the most important, especially in the U.S. If I’m looking to prove that I’m the best ski racer in the world, I feel I’ve done that…For me, the Olympics are important, because of what they represent. But the more I know about the Olympics, the less I feel it represents what it claims.”
-Bode Miller, asked about his plans for next season.

“It was a great day. Everything just fell into position for him. After the super G was over it was a done deal. But he could have had it sewn up in February if he had changed his tactics. With his approach that’s what you’re going to get. He skis all out, but there’s a difference between being all out and being all-out and on the right line.”
-Phil Mahre, the last American man to win the overall (in 1983)

“The way he brings the pressure into the hill is fantastic. He is tall. He is strong. He is not always in the correct position…He was a class better than all the rest of the field. He’ s a great overall winner. There’s no question.”
-Former Austrian ski great Toni Sailer, who won three golds at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

“The kid, you just watch him. He makes so many mistakes but he just, hauls, ass.”
-Daron Rahlves, Miller’s teammate and the holder of twice as many speed-event World Cup wins

“All I can say is that I wouldn’t like to be his coach or trainer.”
-International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper

“He seemed to be a person from when he was born. I’ve seen a lot of births, I was in medical school for two years and his mother was a midwife, and when he was born, when his head was the only thing out, his eyes were open and he looked like he was very aware of what was going on. That’s the way he’s seemed his whole life. If I’d just been pushed through a birth canal I’d be looking pretty ragged but he was calm.”
-Bode’s father Woody Miller, on his son’s birth

“After winning the super G, he was just sitting in the RV reading.”
-Jake Sereno, the driver and cook in Miller’s motorhome, and a childhood friend

“I’m proud of Bode. He’s had a great season. It would have been a shame if he’d let it slip away at the end, and he was definitely capable of that. I’ve been talking to my brother about a couple of months now about how he could conceivably win the overall and set the record for the most DNFs.” -Woody Miller on his son’s track record this season.

“It’s definitely been blown out of proportion and I don’t do anything to try and prevent that or lessen it because I feel it’s a waste of my energy. I’ve very rarely in my whole career have gotten really drunk the night before a race because it’s clearly not an effective way to ski well or ski safely. But I also don’t need a huge amount of sleep the way some people do. I prefer to stay out later, have a few beers as opposed to getting totally sloshed, and then getting up and racing the next day is no problem for me.”
-Bode Miller on talk about his late-night partying.

“There are a lot of things sucking my will to make that push right now. It’s going to be a matter if I can re-motivate myself. I’m using a lot of beer to do that, and I hope it works.”
-Bode Miller speaking about the Olympics in the press conference after winning the globe.

“It’s important that kids have full freedom to use their imagination. That’s one of the most important attributes of human nature – it gets stunted as you get older, as evidenced by the questions I get from the press.”
-Bode Miller on child-rearing

“You have to be on the top if you want to talk. When you do something in the finish with the fans, like I did, people like it.”
-Former overall winner Alberto Tomba

“He likes to win or go out. He doesn’t like finishing third or eighth place.” -Alberto Tomba

“Now that he’s good for super-G and downhill, maybe he’s lost something in slalom. I think he’s the only one now who can win in slalom and downhill.”
– Alberto Tomba

“The way he skis, if he always finished he would win every race. He does what everybody can’t do. When I saw him win all the races, I felt inspired. I thought maybe I could do it. He’s good for the World Cup, he’s a great character. I think when people are in a restaurant and he’s skiing everyone stops to watch. And I like him, he’s a great guy.”
– Women’s overall leader Anja Paerson, of Sweden, who joined Miller this season as two of only four skiers to win races in each of the four Alpine disciplines in one winter.

“He has a lot of fans in Austria and also here in Switzerland, so that’s not a problem for him. America is very far away and skiing is not so popular, so you have to work very hard at skiing. It will become popular in America.”
– Austrian overall rival Benjamin Raich.

“With that kind of push in the beginning of the season, I was just setting myself up for a really, really intense two months,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, you have to make sure you’re at least listening to what your head is telling you, what your heart is telling you. That’s hard to do when there are a million other people shouting as loud as they can.”
-Bode Miller, on winning the first three races of the season.

“He’s a good guy, good for the sport. Many things about him at first you might think are silly, but in the end you figure out he’s a pretty smart guy. I admire his relaxed attitude. He paid me a nice compliment (earlier in the season) and it inspired me.”
– Saturday’s giant slalom race winner Stephan Goergl, of Austria.

“What I see from him is consistency. He’s consistently contending, consistently on the podium.”
– USST skier Lindsey Kildow.

“I don’t like the lifestyle so much as far as being a spectacle. I don’t feel anything I do deserve to be a spectacle. And it only leads to bad things for me. – Bode Miller.

“Some of them I probably would like. Some of my fans probably beat their wives or run over little kids and they just happen to watch me on TV and like the way I ski. Obviously I clearly wouldn’t like that person if I knew ’em better.” – Bode Miller on his ongoing feud with fans.

“In this country it’s different because people think it’s all about the Olympics. But the Olympics just happen to interrupt our WC schedule for two weeks. It’s only a one-day test. The WC overall, you have to be good all year.’ – Phil Mahre, former USST star and three-time overall globe winner, on the importance of the overall World Cup title.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh