WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP) – Bode Miller seemed oddly silent riding the lift to the mountaintop alongside U.S. teammate Marco Sullivan for Monday’s Olympic downhill.
“I don’t think we said a word to each other,” Sullivan said.
Later, hanging out in the athletes’ lounge as race time approached, other skiers were surprised by Miller’s mood, too.
“It was fascinating,” said Liechtenstein’s Marco Buechel, who is at his sixth Winter Games and has known Miller for years. “He said he was nervous. I’m like, ‘What?! Nervous? You? I never saw you like that.'”
One never knows what to expect from the ever-enigmatic Miller, on the slopes or off. As a favorite four years ago in Turin, he flopped. As something of an afterthought this time around, he flourished. With a controlled run down a choppy slope Monday, Miller won the downhill bronze behind Switzerland’s Didier Defago and Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal at the Vancouver Games for his U.S.-record third career Olympic Alpine medal.