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Olympics
Bode Miller, America’s most decorated alpine skier, this week announced his retirement from the sport.
The 40-year-old last raced in 2015 at the World Championships in Beaver Creek, and though he said at the beginning of this year he would consider competing in skiing’s FIS World Cup again, he announced Tuesday his career is over.
Miller has won the most Olympic medals of any US skier; one gold, three silver, and two bronze. His bronze in the Sochi 2014 super-G meant he became the oldest skier to win a medal at the Games and he is ranked eighth on the all-time list of male skiers.
In an interview “In-depth with Graham Bensinger”, Miller called his decision not to race again “easy”, and that he had made it months ago.
“It would be one thing if it was a different sport like, you know, golf or tennis or something where I could go out there and limp into it. But skiing is just so dangerous and risky, and there’s so much there that can go bad for you. I think just the preparation for it is so demanding. It’s just not feasible to get that done.”
Miller is the first of the golden generation of U.S. Alpiners to bring the curtain down. Miller, Ted Ligety, Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso all developed in the early 2000s and have won Olympic gold medals. The PyeongChang Winter Games are expected to be the final Olympics for Vonn and Mancuso. Ligety, at 33 years old with a wife and child, has not ruled out 2022.
Bode Miller will still head to PyeongChang, but as an Alpine skiing analyst for NBC Olympics. He already gained experience as an analyst for NBC Sports the last two World Cup seasons and he has no reservations offering a critical analysis of his former peers.
Bode is a great skier and a man who raced for himself and his own joy. He was frustrating to watch at times (from a fans point of view) because all he ever wanted to do was his best possible. He never took it easy in a second slalom or GS run just to finish on the podium.
Congratulations on a fantastic career and thanks for all the thrills and spills, you’ll go down in ski racing history as one of the best.