Saying he could identify with Brett Favre’s inability to walk away from football, Bode Miller has rejoined the U.S. Ski Team after a two-year separation, 20 weeks before the Vancouver Olympics.
“I can relate,” Miller said of Favre on Thursday at a Los Angeles press conference. “You enjoy your sport, you dedicate your life to it, you can see how it would be nice to walk away and try something new. Then you walk away, there’s a big hole left where that sport was. Especially in my case — it’s my main form of expression. It was pretty obvious I still had some more to give.”
Miller’s decision to return followed conversations with U.S. Ski Team chief executive Bill Marolt and U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst.
Miller described the ski team as “super-supportive,” but no one has forgotten his antics at the 2006 Turin Olympics, where he confessed to partying “at an Olympic level” and failed to win a medal.
“I don’t feel like this is an arena for me to apologize about stuff,” Miller said. “I think my actions are going to speak much more loudly than any apology can.”
Contacting the USOC head may have been a step in that direction, though.
“I was pleased that Bode reached out to me earlier this week to express his commitment to upholding the Olympic ideals of sportsmanship, integrity and hard work in his quest to join the 2010 U.S. Olympic team,” Probst said in a statement.
Men’s head coach Sasha Rearick said he expects Miller to be a team player on what has been a harmonious unit since he left to race on his own.
“We’ve become a very tight family,” Rearick said. “Having Bode come into the environment is going to take us to the next level, but he’s going to be part of the team.”
A two-time World Cup overall champion, Miller considered retiring after failing to win a race last season for the first time since 2002. Having spent much of the offseason unsure if he would return, he is behind in his conditioning and expects to skip the first World Cup race of the season Oct. 24, in Soelden, Austria.
“It’s better to be fully prepared when I start racing, and I think it’s probably unrealistic to be fully prepared for Soelden,” Miller said. “I’m not in bad shape. I have an active lifestyle and I keep myself in good shape, but it’s a far cry from being in race shape.”
Adding that he is “getting old,” Miller said age was another reason he needs to be fully fit before racing. He turns 32 next month.
Miller is the winningest American on the World Cup with 31 career wins, although Vail’s Lindsey Vonn is closing fast with 22, including nine last season.
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
