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.)

Very Brief Winter Olympic Musings

I was going to offer more extensive commentary on the Winter Olympics tonight, but I'll have to keep my commentary to a minimum . . . for now. I'll just say that I think Evan Lysacek, in terms of pure heart and soul, deserved to be the first American man since Brian Boitano in 1988 to men the gold medal in men's figure skating, and it's great to see Bode Miller back in to form.

So why am I both late and brief? Early this afternoon, a nasty computer virus attacked my PC and incapacitated the Internet connection on my account, and after incessant debugging and reconfiguring, I finally got it back to normal. I'm not complaining. I've just had one of those days where I've done enough of that already.

I'll be back tomorrow, God and my computer willing.

Miller Time

Johnny Spillane became the first American to win a medal in the Nordic combined ski jumping and cross country event at the winter Olympics, earning the silver medal and just barely losing the gold to Jason Lamy Chappuis of France by four-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, a Canadian finally won an Olympic gold medal, winter or summer, at an Olympiad held in Canada by winning the gold medal in men's freestyle moguls - Alexandre Bilodeau, of Quebec, won that event yesterday.

But the big news is - Bode Miller finally won another Olympic medal!

Everyone's favorite sot from the 2006 Winter Games, who had won two silver medals in Salt Lake City in 2002 but got wasted in Torino and went home empty-handed, won the bronze medal in the men's downhill skiing race, missing out on a higher podium position by less than a second. (Didier Defago of Switzerland took the gold medal and Aksel Svindal of Norway took the silver. Mller's was just .09 seconds behind Defago and .02 seconds behind Svindal.) Miller credits his unlikely comeback - more incredulous due to the abysmal season he had last year - to a more serious attitude and a simple desire to race. The fact that he became a father two years ago might have also taught him some responsibility.

I don't know how many other races Miller is entered in, but it looks like he's on his way to fulfilling his Olympic promise of four years earlier. It's nicer to know that he's back, but, dude, what's that going to do to my Vancouver coverage? I'll have to look elsewhere for satire!

I've been going over my commentary on Torino from four years ago, by the way, and I think I peaked in terms of Winter Olympics ridicule. And apparently, Miller was a primary source for a good deal of that ridicule. :-O