Miller Time Again

Bode Miller has redeemed himself. He finally has a gold medal after winning one of each other color in the Vancouver Winter Olympics and after having won nothing at Torino in 2006. Yesterday he won the gold medal in the men's combined skiing event. Coupled with the silver he won in the Super G and the bronze in the downhill, this kid's on a high like never before.

And for once it didn't involve alcohol.

Four years after having wasted opportunities at Torino by skiing wasted, Miller is now considered a bona fide, not a potential, Olympic champion. He continues to insist that skiing for him is not about the medals, only going out and skiing your hardest and most aggressively and, when the situation demands it, your most conservatively. I'll let Miller himself explain it:

"My proud moment and my feeling of accomplishment doesn't hinge on those things [winning medals]. It hinges on the skiing that I put down. That's what means a lot to me right now. To do it this way at this point in my career in the Olympics, and in the super combined in particular, is just an unbelievable challenge, and for me to rise to that challenge felt really cool."

Miller still has a chance to win more medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. what that the regular and giant slalom races still coming up.

Meanwhile, on a completely unrelated note, American ice dancing couples Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and Meryl Davis and Charlie White are each in a position to get something ice dancers from other countries, even Great Britain, have that Americans have always lacked. Public medical insurance? No, an Olympic gold medal in ice dancing! (The British victors referred to are Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean from Sarajevo in 1984.)