Bode Miller ready to add to his five Olympic skiing medals
Kitzbuehel (Austria) (AFP) - American star Bode Miller was left heartbroken by his third place in the Kitzbuehel downhill on Saturday, but was confident that he had the speed to add to his five Olympic medals in Sochi.
The 36-year-old is a veteran of the global ski circuit and the Winter Games in Russia will be his fifth, the four-time world gold medallist and two-time World Cup overall champion having made his debut in 1998 in Nagano.
Miller's sole Olympic gold medal came four years ago in the super-combined on the slopes of Whistler, where he also won a super-G silver and downhill bronze.
His two other medals were giant slalom and combined silvers in the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
After undergoing knee surgery in spring 2012, Miller skipped the whole of the 2013 season, but is now back on the circuit looking physically trimmer and focused on what could be an Olympic swansong.
"I think I'm coming around to the right place. I'm sorting things out with my equipment," he said.
"The year away was obviously difficult, trying to catch up to the guys who've had an extra season to adjust to equipment changes."
Miller, who raced a stunning training run on Thursday, added: "Right now I feel good. The main challenge I've always faced in ski racing is that I generally have enough speed to win most of the races I'm in."
It was not to be on Saturday, however, Miller making a drastic mistake going into a flat section to finish third behind winner Hannes Reichelt of Austria and second-placed Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, the reigning world downhill champion.
"I knew it when I came across the finish line, that I'd just wasted another opportunity to win this course," he said.
"On race day you have to execute and not make mistakes and that seems to be a real challenge for me, especially on days like today when I'm extra excited.
"I want to do everything I possibly can. Any time you're trying to do everything you can, it seems like mistakes come out of nowhere sometimes.
"I'm hoping that I can put together my best skiing at the Olympics. I think if I do I definitely have the speed to win some medals."
Miller admitted that his third place had left him fuming.
"Today makes me not want to do it anymore," he insisted. "It really breaks your heart a little bit as a racer.
"I'm 36, I don't know how many times I've come here but I've run this course a bunch of times.
"The training run the other day was a pleasure. But at the same time, you've got to do it on race day.
"It's not really about the result. If I'd skied well today and not made the mistakes I made and gotten third to these two guys (Reichelt and Svindal), I wouldn't have been bummed out about it, that's not the issue for me.
"To come here with my expectations where they were and just not execute, that's tough, it makes you want to go hide."
