Bode blasts first downhill training run at Sochi Games

Bode Miller in Sochi (GEPA/Christian Walgram)

Bode Miller, without even pushing “too hard,” turned in the fastest training run as the men took to the revamped Rosa Khutor course and their first taste of the Sochi Olympics Thursday (Feb. 6).

The course was altered from the one raced two seasons ago in a World Cup test event.

“The training is challenging. The jumps are big and there are a lot of different places where you can make mistakes,” Miller said. He evidently didn’t make many and snuck in just .03 ahead of Swiss Patrick Kueng, the winner at Wengen Jan. 18.

Matthias Mayer was third fastest and Marco Sullivan was fourth, .51 behind his senior teammate though he did miss a gate.

“I made a tactical blunder in the middle,” explained Sullivan. “I went a little bit the wrong direction off a jump and rather than throw myself back into the line I made the decision to miss the gate. I got a good feel for the bottom of the course.”

Erik Guay was seventh and World Cup downhill standings leader Aksel Lund Svindal eighth.

Svindal, too, was convinced the course ran better than in 2012, “The track is better than two years ago, it’s smoother, the turns are longer and there is more momentum.” He added, “The jumps are also smoother and longer than two years ago. The build up 9to the jumps] was done very well.”

Svindal concluded, “It is a really good challenge: fast, steep.”

“They didn’t dumb it down,” noted Miller. “It’s going to be about who learns the course the best and who can link the sections together the best, because it’s about carrying speed from one section to the next.”

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