Bode Miller has always possessed a seemingly inhuman ability to block out distractions, ignore emotions and focus on skiing when he races. His uncanny capacity to concentrate will be sorely tested over the next six days on a glacier high above Soelden, Austria.
The mercurial World Cup champion is training for the first race of the season while his younger brother recovers from severe head injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident Oct. 6 near their home in Franconia, N.H. Chelone Miller, 22, was not wearing a helmet.
Bode Miller, 28, has always been able to shrug off a bad race quickly, learn from it and move on without looking back. That knack for living in the moment should help him Sunday in the first men’s World Cup race of the season, a giant slalom. A women’s GS is scheduled for Saturday.
Miller won the Soelden GS the past two seasons, both times by substantial margins. After the weekend in Soelden, the racers go back into training mode until Thanksgiving weekend, when the men race downhill and super-G in Lake Louise, Alberta.
“When Bode is ski racing, there’s little that gets through his focus,” coach Phil McNichol said. “He’s a very interesting guy. He’s very hard to read, he doesn’t wear his emotions, he really does try hard to appear very in control of his emotions. This is obviously a traumatic, emotional experience for any brother.”
Even without a family tragedy, this figured to be a tumultuous season for Miller.
After he clinched the World Cup overall title last March in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, Miller voiced reservations about the 2006 Turin Olympics and his future as a ski racer. He has not made a public commitment to race in Turin and he probably won’t make one.
Expect him to be here, though.
“You have to look deep with Bode, you can’t read the cover,” McNichol said. “I think it was a reflection of his inner turmoil in terms of what he still wants to get accomplished and how long he wants to keep doing it. I think right now he’s committed to the (Turin) Games, he’s committed to his goals for the year and he’s committed to the World Cup season. You’re going to see a fierce competitor every weekend, and you’re going to see him putting his best foot forward at the Winter Games.”
Miller does intend to cut back on his schedule, something McNichol has been urging him to do. One of the few four-event racers on the circuit, Miller is the only one who didn’t miss a race the past two seasons. He was captivated by the challenge of trying to win the World Cup without taking time off, but now he recognizes the mental and physical price was greater than he thought it would be.
Miller met with McNichol this summer and conceded McNichol was right all along.
“He understands he needs to manage his energy and manage his physical health to be the most competitive he can be,” McNichol said. “His body is beat up from two years of racing every race, and he knows it. He has to be smarter and, if anything, the kid is smart. He always wants to be the most competitive he can be every given day. Now that he’s proven to himself that he can race every race and he can win the World Cup overall (title) racing every race, he will have a different disposition.”
