Bode Miller survived and Kristi Leskinen thrived as the ABC far from reality show SuperStars rolled through it’s fourth episode Tuesday, July 14, evening.Bode Miller survived and Kristi Leskinen thrived as the ABC far from reality show SuperStars rolled through it’s fourth episode Tuesday, July 14, evening.

As a “strategy” misfired, Miller and “celebrity”  teammate Paige Hemmis just snuck through a set of tests involving a clever running format and a round of bowling to avoid a trip to the grueling endurance course and possibly elimination.

Leskinen and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy – a Russian born professional dancer – won the opening event, a run around a half mile loop where the teams had one member running in each direction. Wherever they met the exchanged a baton and ran back the same distance they had come.

With the big lead Leskinen and Chmerkovskiy (how is a pro dancer not considered an athlete?) had a comfortable edge on the field and did not need worry about elimination for the day.

Miller and Hemmis, however, decided on a strategy of not expending too much energy in the running event figuring they weren’t going to win it anyway. They came in dead last for the minimum count of points and then found out the next test was the less than taxing bowling.

In the end that worked out for them, but barely.

With a bowling alley built over the resort pool, which brought out some of the first spectators seen, Hemmis hit a strike on her opening throw, immediately thrusting the pair into the lead. Two rounds later they faced possible elimination before Miller threw a strike. His performance was matched, but a foot fault from the opponent kept the Miller-Hemmis team alive at least one more episode.