U.S. ski coach Phil McNichol questions whether Bode Miller should remain with the team after Miller’s comments about racing and drinking.
The overall World Cup champion said during a “60 Minutes” profile on CBS that it’s not easy “to ski when you’re wasted.”
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has been swamped with angry phone calls from team donors and corporate sponsors since those remarks, and president and CEO Bill Marolt traveled to Wengen, Switzerland, to meet with Miller.
McNichol said Tuesday that Miller has been testing the team’s limits the past two years with his contentious statements, late-night habits and refusal to compromise with staff.
“I don’t know what the answer is. First we have to call the question: Can we still do this together?” McNichol said. “I think the question Bode has to answer is: Do you still want to be a part of the United States’ ski team?
“He’s always tried to be a rebel, which was OK because it was fun sometimes and actually brought a lot of thinking outside the box and pushed the barriers. However, it’s grown to a place where it’s no longer about being opinionated and outspoken.”
Miller, who travels the tour independently in his RV, could race apart from the U.S. team. Kristina Koznick left the women’s team in 2000 to train and race autonomously with boyfriend and coach Dan Stripp.
In this month’s online edition of Maxim magazine, Miller says he has arrived at races drunk “from the night before, where I’m just sobering up by the first round.”
“We’ve been pretty busy cleaning up after our one outspoken cowboy,” McNichol said. “When important people start to ask what kind of organization are you guys running, it’s going to get the boss’ attention.”
According to agent Lowell Taub, Miller is expected to release a statement by the end of the week. Miller is entered in every race this weekend at the Lauberhornrennen – a super- combined on Friday, the traditional Saturday downhill and a slalom on Sunday.
Italy’s Isolde Kostner, who won bronze medals in downhill and super-G at the 1994 Lillehammer Games and a silver in downhill at Salt Lake City in 2002, is retiring because she is pregnant and will not compete in next month’s Turin Games.
Skeleton: American skeleton slider Zach Lund will miss this weekend’s World Cup race in Germany – and quite possibly the Turin Olympics – after testing positive for a drug masking agent this season.
Lund, perhaps the top Olympic gold-medal hope on the U.S. men’s team, tested positive for Finasteride, an ingredient in a medication used to spark hair growth, U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation president Jim Shea Sr. said.
“Right now they’re trying to treat me as if I’m a cheater,” Lund said. “I’m not. I have the proof to show this is an honest mistake.”
The suspension came on the same day U.S. coach Tim Nardiello lost his bid to have his suspension over sexual harassment allegations overturned so he could join his team in Germany. Nardiello, placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 31 after two sexual harassment complaints were made against him, is scheduled to be interviewed by U.S. Olympic Committee officials this week.
Cross country: Despite losing a ski in the middle of the race, Wendy Wagner won the women’s 15-kilometer pursuit, and Kris Freeman won the men’s 30K to cap the U.S. championships in Midway, Utah.
