Miller starts on golden track at championships

BORMIO, Italy – Bode Miller was flying off the course and realized he had two choices – slam on the breaks and make the next turn, or keep going in the same direction for what would have been his ninth unfinished race in his last 14 events.

This time, Miller made the right move midway through his run. He picked up his first victory in six weeks, taking the gold medal in the men’s super-G Saturday to open skiing’s world championships.

“I was going the wrong way and I knew I was, but there is no way to change it without giving away too much speed,” he said. “So I just tried to make the recovery afterwards. That sometimes costs you a lot of time and today it did for sure, but I got away with it.”

Miller got away with it because he was far faster than anyone else throughout the rest of the Stelvio course, which he covered in 1 minute, 27.55 seconds. This was Miller’s sixth medal in the world championships or Olympics.

Michael Walchhofer, the only skier faster than Miller at the final checkpoint, won the silver medal and finished 0.14 seconds behind, leading a 2-3-4 finish for Austria. Benjamin Raich, second to Miller in the overall World Cup standings, took the bronze, 0.68 back. He was followed by Hermann Maier, 0.85 behind.

Miller’s U.S. teammate Daron Rahlves, the 2001 super-G world champion, placed 10th.

Miller began the season by piling up six wins in the first 10 races, but he had not won since. His previous win came in a night slalom on Dec. 13.

“It feels good. It has been a while,” said Miller, who plans to race all six events at the worlds. “It wasn’t the best of runs, but when I came down and crossed the finish I thought I would be lucky to hang on to a top-three (finish).”

Miller normally focuses more on skiing well than posting a good result.

“But sometimes you just have to take the result. On a day where no one had a perfect run and you were the best, it’s still a good feeling,” he said.

At the previous worlds in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2003, Miller tied for second with Maier behind super-G winner Stephan Eberharter, an Austrian who retired after last season.

Miller landed the longest jump of the race outside the blue lines marking the course.

“One of the tough parts about this hill is that there are a lot of blind turns,” he said. “You’re coming right up to a gate without any idea what’s over that. Anyone who’s driven a car over a hill where you can’t see where the road goes after that, imagine doing it at 75 mph and going 100 percent as fast as you can.”