Fool's Gold

It was another bad, bad day for Bode.



SESTRIERE, Italy -- Bode Miller is now 0-for-4 at the Turin Games _ and all he's got left is his weakest event. Miller, who came to the Olympics as a medal contender in virtually all five Alpine events, continued his run of mediocrity Monday in the giant slalom, finishing in a tie for sixth.

The gold medal went to Benjamin Raich of Austria, whose time for the two runs was 2 minutes, 35.00 seconds. Joel Chenal of France won silver in 2:35.07, and Austria's Hermann Maier won bronze.

Miller's time was 2:36.06. He almost fell in the middle of the first run and was 12th-fastest, and despite an excellent second run, he couldn't make up enough time to get back into contention. He finished tied with Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.

Miller, whose last chance is Saturday's slalom, wasn't apologizing to [anyone].

"One of the good things about my career is I have such extensive knowledge, so I always go as hard as I can," Miller told The Associated Press. "Some guys can go 70-80 percent and get results, but I wouldn't do that.

"If things went well, I could be sitting on four medals, maybe all of them gold."

True, but "maybe" doesn't count.

Things haven't gone well at all.

Miller doesn't need to apologize for not winning.

However, a bit of humility from Miller is in order. It's time to drop the facade.

Although he is a terrible role model, perhaps the trash talking and lack of discipline could be tolerated if he backed it up with gold or silver or bronze. He would still be setting a poor example in terms of sportsmanship, but at least he would be entitled to presenting himself as the king of the hill.

Rather than being a world class skier, the attitude and the behavior are proving him to be a world class fool.

Right now, instead of sitting on four gold medals, he's sitting on hot air.
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Miller does deserve credit for not cheating.

He's a stellar role model compared to the Austrians.