Monday, March 14, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Bode Miller's path to the World Cup overall title, which he secured yesterday, began as a free-spirited 2-year-old in the hills of New Hampshire March 13, 2005 Miller Breaks the Curse to Reclaim the World Cup for the U.S. By NATHANIEL VINTON
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, March 12 - The newest icon in the sport of Alpine skiing grew up free as a bird. He is Bode Miller, who was home-schooled in the woods near Franconia, N.H. Those who trekked up the steep half-mile path leading to the fairy-tale cabin his parents had built were sometimes shocked to find a 2-year-old boy playing in a rushing mountain stream beside the house. They wanted him to "discover his limits," say his parents, who speak with the same faraway soulfulness as Miller, who clinched the overall World Cup title by finishing second in Saturday's giant slalom. Miller, the most talented ski racer in the world, has earned the most respected trophy in the sport, something no American has held in 22 years, when Phil Mahre took the men's and Tamara McKinney the women's. "Like it was with the Red Sox, it was becoming embarrassing," said Miller, who spent the week reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." "It was a different thing than a sports record. It became some kind of a curse." With one race left, Miller has an insurmountable 204-point advantage over Benjamin Raich of Austria, who clinched the giant slalom title by placing third on Saturday. Miller was 68-hundredths of a second behind Stephan Goergl of Austria, who won in 2 minutes 10.51 seconds. Raich was 0.80 behind. The overall title represents success throughout the World Cup season, in all disciplines, against all racers. "If you're looking for mass recognition, then the Olympics are the most important, especially in the U.S.," Miller said. "If I was looking to prove that I was the best ski racer in the world, then I feel like I've done that." Miller learned to ski by sliding down the path to the main road on an early incarnation of a snowboard. His preternatural talent was nurtured at Cannon Mountain, where an outcropping jutted improbably from the hillside, looking like the face of Abraham Lincoln. The Old Man of the Mountain appeared on New Hampshire's license plates, road signs and commemorative quarter. It drew thousands of tourists a year, and its sudden collapse, on a foggy morning in May 2003, was an existential crisis for the region, as well as an economic one. "But if you ever went up there and saw it, it was like a travesty to nature," Miller said. "They had it chained up there. It was all man-made and manufactured. That's one of the things that was supposed to be cool about it: that it's not man-made." Miller, a phenomenally versatile and creative skier who puts authenticity first, was pleased by the landmark's sudden disintegration. "I think it's awesome," he said. "I totally support that. It should have fallen off years ago." It is not the first time he has taken gravity's side. Miller, 27, competed in 33 races from late November through Saturday. He won the first two downhills of the season, silencing critics like the Austrian Olympic great Karl Schranz. In December, when Miller won in four disciplines in a record-setting 16 days, the victories came in Canada, Colorado, France and Italy. "Only a very few people have managed it in the past," said Marc Girardelli, a five-time overall winner who was an all-rounder like Miller. "The movements in downhill are completely different from slalom and then giant slalom. You have to combat specialists. They only train in their specialist event. You have no recreation time for your mind." Or for your body. Miller says he is so battered from the long season that he can hardly walk up a set of stairs. "I pretty much limp around all the time now," he said. "When I actually get in the course, I just black it out or have enough adrenaline." Miller has spent his entire ski racing career trying not to be manufactured, resisting orthodox technique and ignoring every authority in the sport who proposed that he be more strategic in his approach to this grueling, tricky circuit. "I just think that kids have a natural ability to learn on their own a lot more than they learn in a structured environment," said Miller's mother, Jo, who home-schooled him and let him roam the forests near his house. "A child's natural curiosity drives them into all kinds of experiences that if you're sitting in a schoolroom you don't experience." She said she could tell him what to do, and that "maybe in a few days he might come a little bit towards what I'm saying, and it'll be his idea." But Miller has resisted nearly every coach who tried to instill orthodox skiing technique in him, and that stubbornness drives coaches crazy. "Even the geniuses, the Pelés and Gretzkys, they had to do more than just show up," said Phil McNichol, head coach of the United States Ski Team. "He wants to be so self-reliant and nonconformist. But he wants to be in a sport which is by definition conformist, with rules and scoring and structure and a team." McNichol and the other coaches established a tenuous truce with Miller, hoping to keep him in their uniform so that his talents may rub off on his young teammates. But Miller is not completely with the program. Last season, he became sick of the team hotels. To regulate his environment, Miller found a sponsor for a 31-foot motor home, and paid his best friend from childhood to be his driver and cook. What was meant as a retreat from European fans and reporters only increased the fascination. "The fact that he lives in this mobile home shows that he is a good P.R. man for skiing," Gian Franco Kasper, the president of the International Ski Federation, said, chuckling. "That's normal in the U.S., I know, but here gypsies have them. It's something for gypsies normally." On Sunday, Miller will receive the 18-pound trophy - the grosse kristallkugel to the Austrians, who have taken the overall title the past five years. The coveted prize is going back to Miller's family compound near Franconia - no replacement for the Old Man, but a monument to nature's anomalous productions. Miller has not forgotten the folly of the Old Man. "Maybe we shot ourselves in the foot," he said, referring to the Franconia natives who strapped the Old Man to the hillside with rebar and cement. "That's the kind of thing that anxiety and stupid human nature tends to screw up. "If it had been left entirely alone, maybe it would have crumbled off and turned into, you know, an eagle or something, sitting on the cliff, and it would have been the Old Eagle on the Hill.' " American Wins Cup Race LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, March 12 (AP) - Sarah Schleper of the United States recorded her first World Cup victory in the season's final slalom Saturday, and Janica Kostelic finished second to close in on the overall leader, Anja Paerson. Schleper covered the two runs on the Silvano Beltrametti course in 1 minute 29.13 seconds, maintaining her lead from the first run. Copyright 2005
