Sometime this season — perhaps even this week at Beaver Creek — Bode Miller most likely will surpass Phil Mahre as the winningest American World Cup skier. How to celebrate that landmark achievement could pose an awkward dilemma for the U.S. Ski Team.
With the sound of one hand clapping, perhaps?
After 11 memorable and often contentious seasons with the national team, the fiercely independent racer from tiny Franconia, N.H., has struck out on his own this season. He has become a team of one — dubbed Team America — with his own coaching and support staff.
Cynics no doubt will suggest his break with the team is about setting his own hours and rules, given his highly publicized nocturnal adventures at the Turin Olympics, when he failed to medal and made no apologies.
But that doesn’t appear to be Miller’s motivation. He wants to live in his tour bus, something the ski team forbade. He wants a proper diet for an athlete, instead of being stuck with the wurst of the day in whatever pension happens to be bunking the ski team. He wants access to state-of-the-art workout equipment and an individualized training program.
So he will live in his bus, eat properly and work out in his own gym housed in a heated trailer wired for music.
“It was just the natural progression,” said Miller, 30. “I’ve gone through the process a lot of different times and I’ve been in this sport a long time. I really wanted to try and do it on my own one time before I retired.”
Miller will be coached by John McBride and Forest Carey (two former ski team coaches) and his uncle, Mike Kenney, a former University of Colorado racer.
McBride and Kenney are two of the few people who can tell Miller he’s wrong about something. With a growing family back in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, McBride wouldn’t waste another winter of his life if he thought Miller got the bus just to party like a rock star.
“The truth is, at this level, if you’re going to do it right, you’ve got to do some of it on your own,” McBride said. “That’s what he’s done. It’s not about the ski team, it’s not about trying to be the individual, renegade, rebellious super-athlete. I think he really is holding himself accountable to do more than he’s done in the past. And that’s how he’s selling this thing to himself as well.”
Miller has to pay for his travel and training expenses out of his pocket, or by lining up sponsorships, such as the fitness equipment company providing his workout machines. But there’s little wonder Miller thought it worth doing. During the season the ski team often has to make do with weight rooms at European rec centers that would embarrass a Class A high school. Sometimes they don’t even get that.
“I feel like it’s really important to have access to the proper equipment, without a huge hassle, when we’re on the road so we can maintain our preseason fitness routine,” Miller said. “That was just impossible (before). We were scrounging around, trying to go to little elementary school gyms and (ski) academy gyms. It just didn’t work well. This is just the concept to solve that.”
But there are bound to be awkward moments on the slopes between Miller and the ski team he left behind. World Cup rules say he must wear a U.S. Ski Team uniform and must be entered in races by the team, but there the relationship ends.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable with our current situation,” said U.S. head men’s coach Phil McNichol. “It’s like Miller’s not gone, but he’s gone. You don’t want to see a guy like Bode leave your team, but at the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for the team and individuals have to do what they feel is best for them.”
McNichol said there are no hard feelings, but there are times when he misses Miller.
“It’s been very hard for me, because I have a lot invested in the program, I have a lot invested in him, and it’s sad to see him on the hill,” McNichol said. “I still want to see him do well, but I wish he was with the group and I wish he didn’t feel the way he feels.”
Miller says his initial goal was to set up an advanced travel and training regimen — along the lines of what he has now — within the ski team.
“What I was requesting or suggesting was that we have a more elite team inside the A team that had a higher standard, a higher level of everything — more serious with the nutrition element, more serious with the supplement element, more serious with the training element, the rest element,” Miller said. “Everything would be stepped up to a higher level. The argument with the team was that they couldn’t afford it, they didn’t have the resources.”
McBride believes Miller may be poised, at last, to fulfill his true potential.
“He’s been awesome this year,” McBride said. “He’s more committed to doing this thing the best he can than I’ve ever seen him. Maybe it’s because he’s taken it on himself. He’s got a lot invested in it.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
