TORINO: Alpine: Did Miller hit a rock on first run, or just rock-hard ice?

TORINO: Alpine: Did Miller hit a rock on first run, or just rock-hard ice?{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – Bode Miller blew his fourth race in a row at these Olympics with a dismal first run in the giant slalom. Miller told fellow competitors that he hit a rock on the course.

The top-ranked official on the hill, meanwhile, denied vehemently that there were any rocks on the course.

“It was hard, it was icy, but there were no rocks on the run,” said Guenter Hujara, the race referee.

U.S. tech coach Mike Morin said Miller’s ski’s edge was peeled out from the ski.

“He smoked his whole ski, and the ski might be ruined,” said Morin between runs at Sestriere. “That’s a pair he really likes.”

Ski Racing inspected the slope and saw no rocks. Nor did Ski Racing see Miller’s damaged ski — it was rushed to the repair bench.

“It happened on the fifth gate on the first run,” said Robbie Kristan, one of Miller’s servicemen, in a Monday night cell phone interview. “It totally dulled the edge down…it definitely had no grip on his right ski, the inside edge…that was a really big bummer because he would be in there today for sure.”

Morin said the ski’s edge was rolled out of the ski from the foot back, something that happens sometimes when the edges are particularly thin.

“It rolls the edge over, so you just file like crazy and you can cut the edge in half, basically, and get a new edge,” said Morin. “You just go to town on it with a panzer file and you can save the edge, sometimes.”

“It took me more than an hour after the run that I took those skis that they were perfect again,” said Kristan.

Hujara said it was possible that the rock-hard ice was the issue.

“This was no rocks, it was the ice,” said Hujara. “When you get from the sidehill, sideways, this happened to quite a few racers.”

Kalle Palander of Finland also said he damaged his ski on the first run.