February 27, 2010
Miller out of men's slalom event
by PR Wire Report/
Bode Miller reacts after missing a gate in his first slalom run on Saturday, taking him out of contention for a fourth medal in Vancouver. (photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
MORE IMAGES 
Bode Miller’s quest for a fourth medal in Vancouver ended early on in his first run in the men’s slalom on Saturday when he went off course.
Miller (Franconia, N.H.), who has won gold (super combined), silver (super-G) and bronze (downhill) in the Vancouver Games, could have become the first man to win four Alpine medals in the same Olympics.
He straddled the fifth gate on his first run.
"That's the way slalom goes," Miller said. "When you take risks in slalom, you don't only take risks on the bottom half. You take it from the very first gate, and if you don't, you can give away a tenth of a second on the first two gates."
Miller said a DNF in slalom doesn't make the Olympic experience any less sweet for him.
"I really couldn't be much happier," he said. "To have three medals, and the two medals I didn't get I skied hard. I came out, I was ready, I was prepared that's all the stuff you can do."
Italy's Giuliano Razzoli survived a blazing second run from Croatia's Ivica Kostelic to win gold. Kostelic claimed silver and Sweden’s Andre Myher won bronze.
Nolan Kasper (Warren, Vt.) put down a solid first run and an even better second effort to land 24th, an impressive showing from a 20-year-old in his first Olympic event.
Kasper, who raced for the first time on the World Cup in November, was 29th after the first run and had the 23rd-ranked second run to reach a pre-race goal of finishing top 30. He said nerves were not an issue in his first time racing on the sport’s biggest stage.
"It's just skiing, plain and simple," Kasper said. "I've been to an Olympics, and that's a big accomplishment. I'm excited to be here."
Another New Englander, Jimmy Cochran of Keene, N.H., also competed for the U.S. but did not finish.
Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) and Miller both made early mistakes and went off course in the first run under tricky conditions that tripped up many of the field's skiers.
"I made a mistake off the top and I was just pushing hard then that next little face there was a really quick hair pin, and I just wasn't on top of my skis enough and maybe going a little too straight and carrying too much heat to make it cleanly," Ligety said.
Asked if the U.S. Alpine Team would have taken eight medals before the Games, U.S.head coach Sasha Rearick said he's proud of the winning performances, but there are no plans to rest on their laurels.
"We're already looking at what we're going to do to get better," Rearick said. "We're very grateful for the great results, but at the same time, we still need to go up and go to work."
The U.S. Team will stop in Kvitfjell, Norwayfor World Cup races next weekend before the World Cup Finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
