Bode Miller reminisces about working with longtime coach Forest Carey, Team America adventures and his Vancouver 2010 breakthrough

After 14 years with the U.S. Ski Team, Carey was unexpectedly relieved of his coaching duties in March, a move that left athletes shocked and disappointed. Miller: “It’s a huge loss for the team, but not the first time that I’ve seen them shoot themselves in the foot.”

Forest Carey, a 1994 graduate of Maine’s Carrabassett Valley Academy, ascended to ski racing success, competing alongside Bode Miller before eventually transitioning to full-time coaching.

“Forest was one of the greatest young racers on the planet when he was winning Junior Nationals when we were at school together,” Miller tells Ski Racing Media, referring to Carey’s super-G and GS victories at Sugarloaf in 1994. “He was able to do things before the shaped skis really came around that no one else on the planet could do, not even World Cup guys.”

“He dominated guys at a young age, but I think in a lot of ways the shaped skis equalized the rest of the field to him,” Miller added.

“I don’t think Bode ever beat me in a race,” Carey joked about his earlier days in the sport.

Hampered by injuries, Carey’s racing career with the U.S. Ski Team, mostly competing in FIS and Nor-Am races, concluded in 2003.  He landed the head coaching job at Middlebury College and after three seasons was hired by the U.S. Ski Team. The opportunity was somewhat of a rescue mission following Miller’s disappointing Torino 2006 Olympic performance, in which he failed to medal. The Maine native quickly became one of his old friend’s trusted coaches, a relationship that grew tighter, especially during Carey’s two seasons onboard Bode’s independent Team America.

“That was important for me because a lot of my racing was like that,” Miller noted.

In Team America’s first season in 2007-08’, the New Hampshire native skied all five disciplines, charging to six victories, including downhill wins in Bormio and Wengen en route to his second overall World Cup title. Miller’s tight-knit coaching staff was Carey, John McBride, Craig Daniels and Uncle Mike Kenney.

“We were doing stuff the way we wanted to, all working really hard and for the first time all pulling together in the same direction,” said Miller, who won the title by 111 points over runner-up Benni Raich.

“I think it was fun for them (his coaches) and we had some really cool, exciting races,” Miller said. “To walk away with the second overall title was huge.”

“More than any other coach I knew, he could enjoy the style of one’s skiing and wasn’t just results oriented,” said Miller, who is one year younger than Carey. “Forest understood sometimes it’s about trying to do something that might not lead to success in terms of the result, but represented something unique to the sport for its development – those are rare people.”

“Bode knew what to do and we weren’t going to screw him up by telling him stuff,” Carey kidded. “There was a lot of momentum with Bode leading the train.”

“It was such a wonderful time in our lives, working with the best coaches. We rolled around Europe in Bode’s RVs,  and that’s when he started his relationship with Head, which has grown into a behemoth, but wasn’t that big back then,” Carey recalls.

“I was young enough in my coaching career that I didn’t realize what a big deal Bode was and how cool it was, which makes it even better.”

The title helped propel Carey’s long and prominent career coaching U.S. racers.

This spring, after 14 seasons, the U.S. Ski Team relieved Carey of his duties after being promoted to men’s head alpine coach a year ago. According to United States Ski and Snowboard (USSS), Carey’s position and responsibilities were considered redundant. As part of an organizational restructuring, the duties of the head men’s coach will now be the responsibility of re-hired Alpine Director Patrick Riml.

It was an unexpected move that has left U.S. Ski Team athletes confused and disappointed.

“It’s a huge loss for the team, but it’s not the first time that I’ve seen them shoot themselves in the foot,” Miller said. “I look forward to setting Forest up with my academy because he’s the perfect dude for that and has so much value to provide to young racers,” the four-time Olympian says, referring to his future ski racing venture.

Team America’s second season and Vancouver 2010 success

Bode promoted Carey to head coach of Team America for the following season after the title, but Miller suffered a broken ankle in a Beaver Creek downhill crash that ultimately dashed hopes for a third large crystal globe.

After the Val d’Isère world championships that February, a frustrated Miller abruptly left Europe, returning to his boat in San Diego, leaving doubt as to whether he would ever race again.

“Forest called me and asked if I was coming back for the end of the season, and I was like, ‘No dude, I’m done,’” Miller recalled. “I had won my second overall with my own team, I was dealing with all these injuries and my back was already toast.”

Gently persuaded by Carey and other close confidantes, Miller re-evaluated.

“I had a bit of an epiphany in terms of legacy and what I was leaving behind in the sport, and that was driven to some degree by Forest and my coaches,” Miller said.

“It was a maturing process for me and I un-retired in October, that Olympic year, with the sole intent of demonstrating a different approach at the Olympics than I did in 2006.”

Miller delivered, winning three Olympic medals at the Vancouver 2010 Games, including gold in combined.

“It was very validating,” Miller reveals. “That was a testament to a shift in approach, which was important. It was good for me, good for the sport and good from a legacy standpoint.”

Carey made an invaluable contribution to Miller’s heroics at Vancouver 2010, stumbling upon a lost pair of proven racing skis.

With a stroke of luck, the veteran coach noticed Bode’s Head skis among a cache of Lindsey Vonn’s equipment, retained by Miller’s former serviceman Heinz Haemmerle.

“We were powder skiing during a cancelled training run and the Head test team was up there,” Carey recalls the story from Whistler Mountain. “I literally saw them in the snow and said there are the 11s. Bode was basically undefeated on those skis.”

“I called Bode and he told his serviceman Tschunti to get these skis and he was going to race them,” Carey explained.

“The profile of that ski was incredibly intense – it had a totally different flex profile than we had ever skied on,” Miller said.

Concluding the tale, Carey said: “Head thought we were crazy, but he raced on them and the rest is history.”

Miller, accustomed to the spotlight throughout his 18-year World Cup career, and Carey, who quietly went about his work behind the scenes, forged a nearly three-decade relationship. It is a compelling chapter in U.S. ski racing history – one filled with twists and turns, monumental achievements and innovation – that won’t soon be forgotten.

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