Miller makes adjustment on the fly
He gets back on track in super-G
Bode Miller was flying off the course and realized he had two choices: Slam on the brakes and make the next turn, or keep going in the same direction for what would have been his ninth unfinished race in his last 14 events.
This time, Miller made the right move midway through his super giant slalom run. He picked up his first victory in six weeks, taking the gold medal yesterday to open skiing's world championships in Bormio, Italy.
"I was going the wrong way and I knew I was, but there is no way to change it without giving away too much speed," said the Franconia, N.H., skier. "So I just tried to make the recovery afterwards. That sometimes costs you a lot of time and today it did, for sure, but I got away with it."
Miller got away with it because he was far faster than anyone else throughout the rest of the Stelvio course, which he covered in 1 minute 27.55 seconds. This was Miller's sixth medal in the world championships or Olympics.
Michael Walchhofer, the only skier faster than Miller at the final checkpoint, won the silver medal and finished 0.14 seconds behind, leading a 2-3-4 finish for Austria. Benjamin Raich, second to Miller in the overall World Cup standings, took the bronze, 0.68 back. He was followed by Hermann Maier, 0.85 behind.
Miller's US teammate Daron Rahlves, the 2001 super-G world champion, was 10th. Rahlves is fourth overall in the World Cup super-G standings.
The next US finisher was Scott Macartney, in 28th place.
Miller began the season by piling up six victories in the first 10 races, but he had not won since. His previous victory came in a night slalom in Sestriere Dec. 13.
"It feels good. It has been a while," said Miller, who plans to race all six events at the worlds. "It wasn't the best of runs, but when I came down and crossed the finish, I thought I would be lucky to hang on to a top three."
Miller normally focuses more on skiing well than posting a good result. "But sometimes you just have to take the result," he said. "On a day where no one had a perfect run and you were the best, it's still a good feeling."
Moguls: American Jeremy Bloom won his second World Cup event in three days and Canada's Jennifer Heil took first in the freestyle dual moguls in Park City, Utah. Bloom, the former University of Colorado receiver who gave up football to concentrate on skiing and the Turin Olympics, led a US sweep in men's moguls Thursday with his first freestyle World Cup victory of the season.
Bloom picked up his second win when he beat Australia's Dale Begg-Smith in the final run. Heil, the points leader in women's dual moguls, won after American Hannah Kearney missed on a back flip off the second kicker. Kearney finished second. Nordic combined: Hannu Manninen of Finland won his fifth straight World Cup event after building a lead in the cross-country sprint in Sapporo, Japan. Ronny Ackermann of Germany was second and Magnus Moan of Norway was third. Todd Lodwick of the United States finished 10th.
Manninen took a 17-second lead after the 10-kilometer sprint, then nailed jumps of 119.5 meters and 109.5 meters for 226.8 points. His sprint time was 24 minutes 54.9 seconds.
Manninen has seven titles this season and leads the overall standings after 13 rounds with 946 points. He is followed by Ackermann (784) and Lodwick (546).
Snowboarding: Jonas Carlson of Sweden took the overall World Cup lead with a victory in Murau, Austria, the first Big Air win of his career. Carlson earned 1,000 points with a perfect first run followed by two steady ones. Peetu Piiroinen of Finland was second and Matevz Petek of Slovenia third.
Carlson, ninth in the Big Air at this month's world championships at
Ski jumping: At Zakopane, Poland, Adam Malysz of the host country and Roar Ljoekelsoey of Norway tied for the large hill victory with 268.9 points, with Risto Jussilainen of Finland third (254.4). Another Finn, World Cup leader Janne Ahonen (1,446 points), finished fourth (252.4).
Malysz is fourth in the overall standings (894 points), Ljoekelsoey fifth (858).
