Bode Miller finally claims Olympic gold with super combined victory

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

BODE Miller combined blistering pace with effortless agility to capture his first ever Olympic gold medal in Whistler.

GOLD AT LAST: Bode Miller finally achieves Olympic redemption with super combined gold in Vancouver (Getty Images)

The American bad boy completed his Vancouver set, having claimed downhill bronze and super-G silver in Whistler, with a spectacular slalom display - snaking through the gates like a cobra hunting its prey - for super combined gold.

Lying seventh after the downhill run, Miller was an outsider at best. Slalom has never been the 32-time World Cup winner's strength, but the boy from the hills arrived in Vancouver with new-found focus.

His talent has never been in doubt. He is arguably the most gifted skier of his generation but his refusal to win at all costs has so often been his undoing.

It has all too often been Miller versus the mountain and it has produced mixed results. But when he gets it right there is no better to watch and on Franz's Run on Sunday, he was flawless.

He maintained perfect concentration to clock a combined time of 2:44.92 and finally banish his Olympic demons, heaping the pressure on Aksel Lund Svindal, who led after the downhill, and exacting revenge on the Norwegian, who has twice finished one place above him thus far in Vancouver.

Svindal, last to go in the slalom, buckled in his bid to emulate compatriot Kjetil Andre Aamodt, who completed the super-G and super combined double eight years ago and crashed out.

That handed Croatia's Ivica Kostelic silver - unsurprising, judging by his all-round ability and the fact that the course was designed by his father Ante Kostelic, while bronze went to Silvan Zurbriggen.

Kostelic edged into the lead but Miller - in what was probably his last chance at Olympic gold - was in no mood to let the opportunity slip through his fingers and roared ahead of the Croatian by 0.33.

Great Britain's Ed Drake finished 29th, rising four places after the slalom run.

"I can't complain about that, it's by best finish of the Games. I didn't expect too much from the slalom, it was my first competitive slalom of the season and I'm not a slalom skier,” he said.

"I'm loving every moment of it here. It's great to be around these guys here, they're the pinnacle of the sport."

Four years ago Miller insisted an Olympic gold medal meant nothing to him. He arrived in Italy as the USA's poster boy but heavy lay the crown of being the favourite.

He was notoriously having a lie-in - only his partying was Olympic-sized - when his competitors were finalising preparations and he ended up empty-handed.

Exile from the USA's team followed, while the American public turned their back on Miller, bemused by how he could betray such talent.

But fatherhood has mellowed the American. After a sizeable break from the sport at the end of last season he made the decision to comeback to the USA team in a bid to finally capture the one that got away.

And after the most chequered of careers, the final chapter has been written and Olympic redemption is Miller's at last.

In Vancouver he has eclipsed compatriot and pin-up girl Lindsey Vonn, who American television networks built their hopes and planned their schedules around. While she has two medals to date, Miller, a four-time world champion, has three.

These Games were billed as Vonn-couver but Miller time, albeit it four years later than expected, has finally begun.

ALSO READ: Sportsbeat's James Toney in Whistler reports on what a difference four years makes for Bode Miller

 

IN PICTURES: Bode Miller finally gets his mits on Olympic gold in the super combined in Whistler

 AS IT HAPPENS: Day ten of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver