Bode Miller to go independent of U.S. Ski Team

Bode Miller, on pace to become the winningest alpine racer in U.S. history, has decided to leave the U.S. Ski Team and become an independent racer.
    Miller, who will enter the 2007-08 season needing just two World Cup wins to match Phil Mahre's U.S. record of 27, met with U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt and men's head coach Phil McNichol this week, and the enigmatic racer decided to choose the independent route rather than a national team atmosphere that he has said hinders his ability to perform.
    "This was a difficult decision for me to make," Miller said. "Despite any of our past differences, I have been part of the U.S. Ski Team for 11 years and I cherish the relationships I have built with my teammates, the coaches, staff, sponsors and trustees. I do not believe I can excel and perform at the level I demand of myself under the guidelines the U.S. Ski Team has presented. I will continue to ski as an American under the U.S. flag, and am proud to do so."
    This season, Miller, 29, managed four World Cup wins — including a victory in the famed Lauberhorn downhill at Wengen, Switzerland — and six podiums, but he was shut out at the World Championships and continued to express frustration at team policies, including a rule that mandated athletes sleep in team hotels rather than personal RVs.
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BODE MILLER, on pace to become the winningest alpine racer in U.S. history, has decided to leave the U.S. Ski Team and become an independent racer.
    Miller, who will enter the 2007-08 season needing just two World Cup wins to match Phil Mahre's U.S. record of 27, met with U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt and men's head coach Phil McNichol in Park City, Utah, this week, and the enigmatic racer decided to choose the independent route rather than a national team atmosphere that he has said hinders his ability to perform.
    "This was a difficult decision for me to make," Miller said. "Despite any of our past differences, I have been part of the U.S. Ski Team for 11 years and I cherish the relationships I have built with my teammates, the coaches, staff, sponsors and trustees. I do not believe I can excel and perform at the level I demand of myself under the guidelines the U.S. Ski Team has presented. I will continue to ski as an American under the U.S. flag, and am proud to do so."
    This season, Miller, 29, managed four World Cup wins — including a victory in the famed Lauberhorn downhill at Wengen, Switzerland — and six podiums, but he was shut out at the World Championships and continued to express frustration at team policies, including a rule that mandated athletes sleep in team hotels rather than personal RVs.
    Check out what Ski Racing readers think at SR Forums.
    "I'm adjusting to the news and I wish him only success," McNichol said Saturday as he prepared for an offseason training camp at Mammoth, California, next week. "Hopefully we can still have a positive working relationship."
    Miller switched from Atomic to Head skis before the 2006-07 season, and the Franconia, New Hampshire, racer struggled to find his slalom form all season. He did find success in speed, wowing the Beaver Creek crowd for a Birds of Prey downhill win early in the season. He finished fourth in the overall standings and clinched the World Cup super G season title, earning the honor of Ski Racing magazine male U.S. Alpine Skier of the Year.
    According to USSA President Bill Marolt, Hunt and McNichol outlined the program direction to Miller, making it clear the expectations for members of the national team. Miller told the alpine sport leadership group on Friday evening that he had chosen not to join the national team for the 2007-08 season.
    “We sat down Thursday and we discussed Bode’s team responsibilities and then his option to be outside the team if he so desired. As it turned out, he decided to go out on his own,” Hunt said.
    "We definitely called into question his commitment to the team and his responsibilities to the team," Hunt said. "He's more motivated to ski outside the team than he is inside the team, that's my read."
    A three-time Olympian and a member of the U.S. team for 11 seasons, Miller is still eligible to enter FIS and other competitions for which he is qualified, but he will not participate in U.S. Ski Team programs, Marolt noted.
    Kristina Koznick, a six-time women's World Cup winner, went independent of the U.S. Ski Team late in her racing career. The most imposing hurdle independent racers face is financial, but Miller has become wealthy through his race winnings, sponsorships and endorsements.
    Miller has won four World Cup titles, including the 2004-05 overall crown, the first for a U.S. male since Mahre 22 years earlier. He also is tied with Dick Durrance and Tiger Shaw for the most U.S. men's alpine titles with nine.
    The 2007-08 season is set to open on Oct. 27 in Sölden, Austria. At World Cup Finals, Miller hinted that he will return for next season. "There's always a question, but I think I probably will," he said.
    Weeks later, though, he said that he would likely not race at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games — or any future Games. If so, Olympic gold would stand out as a major hole in Miller's athletic rèsumè, but he has long insisted that Olympic medals are low on his priority list. He earned two silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
    A statement issued by CAA Sports, which represents Miller, called the ski team's terms "non-negotiable" and said the team would govern Miller "differently and more onerously" than his teammates.
    "At the end of the day, Bode's being treated the same way other athletes on the team are being treated," Hunt said. "We're asking him to be accountable, as we are with every athlete on the team. The terms we laid out for him, he wasn't prepared to follow through on.
    "He's a tremendous athlete, and he's made a tremendous contribution to the team over his 11 years," Hunt said. "Frankly, we wish him the best."
   Miller will remain active with his Turtle Ridge Foundation, which raises money for health, diversity and sustainable living causes and in the 18 months since its inception has made donations to the Boys & Girls Club of Northern New Hampshire, the Bretton Woods Adaptive Ski Program and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Mahre: Effect could be minimal
    Mahre, the man Miller is chasing for the U.S. wins record, said Saturday, "I don't know if it will affect him at all. He's always danced to his own drum, and I think the ski team laid down the law last year and obviously it didn't sit well with him and he's moving on."
    The key, Mahre said, will be for Miller to find a personal coach and support staff to handle the logistics of travel, lodging, gear tuning, etc. Miller helped lure men's coach Johno McBride out of retirement last season, and Robi Kristan has been Miller's
longtime serviceman.
    Mahre, and brother Steve Mahre, were known as sometimes stubborn racers and not always the easiest to handle for the national team staff. Like Miller, though, they were immensely successful.
    "I have fond memories of the ski team, and everything that went on there was conducive to being competitive and being successul," Phil Mahre said. "Some people would tell you otherwise. … I was a strong-willed individual and if I needed something, I asked for it. If I felt like I needed to work on a specific thing, I would ask the coaching staff to accommodate me.
    "Steve and I didn't do a lot with the ski team in the last four years of our career, but when I was with the team, I did what they asked me to do, and when I was away from the team, I was on my own program."
     Mahre continued, "Him branching off on his own could be a positive, it could be a negative. A lot of people said he was a good teammate. Others would agree to disagree. That's life. Not everybody gets along.
    "You need positive influences, positive influences for everybody, even the up-and-coming racers. If you have a negative, things aren't good. I don't know if he was a negative. He was his own man. One thing about great athletes is what other people think about them doesn't affect them."
    Mahre turned 50 two days ago and said this season was a good jump-start in his comeback bid to qualify for U.S. alpine nationals. Like Miller, he's an "independent" racer now. Unlike Miller, Mahre is in search of sponsorship that would allow him to train on the race hill seven days a week.
    "This season was a good start to everything. I had a lot of inconsistency, and that comes from a lack of training," Mahre said.
    Mahre, who is racing cars this summer with his brother and expects to log time on the alpine lanes of Mount Hood, said his U.S. wins record is not important, while paying homage to all-time World Cup wins leader Ingemar Stenmark.
    "First off, records are made to be broken," Mahre said. "It it wasn't broken, then we'd be in a sad state of affairs in U.S. skiing. Somebody has to come along and better what I did, otherwise we're not growing."
    With Miller out of the national team picture, Hunt and staff can focus energies on racers such as Steven Nyman, Ted Ligety, Marco Sullivan and Scott Macartney. But the chore of keeping ski racers motivated is omnipresent.
    "It's always a challenge to keep focused on the athletics and keep guys motivated," Hunt said. "We're going to keep charging and keep working at it."