Olympic Level Loser

Bode Miller's performance at the Torino Olympics has been a disaster. The guy participated in five events.
Downhill: 5th
Combined: Disqualified
Super-G: Did not finish
G. Slalom: 6th
Slalom: Did not finish
Expectations were high for Miller. He didn't manage to win a single medal.

Does that make him a loser?

No.

Only an elite minority of the more than 2,500 athletes competing at the Games go home with a medal. Most are just thrilled to be participating and striving to do their best.

Olympic medals aren't a reliable indicator of the quality of an athlete's character or heart as a competitor. They aren't necessarily a measure of ability either. Luck and twists of fate can deliver championships to lesser athletes. It happens all the time.

When it comes to character and sportsmanship, some real losers have been decorated with lots of hardware, while some winners have no medals or titles or endorsements at all.
Picabo Street, a two-time Olympic medalist, had harsh words for some on the U.S. ski team.
Street writes:

The annual spring meetings of the U.S. Ski Team are going to be pretty ugly in April. You're going to see a lot of administration and coaching changes, particularly on the men's side.

Coming out of these Olympics, the federation is going to struggle for support, and it's not because they didn't win enough medals. It's because of the behavior of the athletes.

On The Today Show earlier this week, I addressed the problems I saw in the U.S. Ski Team -- maturity, professionalism and Julia Mancuso 's tiara among them. This was before she won a gold medal.

Now, Julia has a great opportunity in the present and for the future. I think having fun is important, but at the Olympic Games, professionalism is more important. If a tiara is something you're going to wear and have it be part of your routine, you have to remember what year you're gearing up for.

I understand that she has a program, she tries to keep it light and have fun. Trust me, I get that. But put together a program that's applicable across the board -- something that includes appropriate behavior in the Olympics.

I think she's going to do a great job on the post-Olympic circuit. She already has, in my opinion. I just hope she continues to take her new position seriously and grows up and thinks about the next generation.

This is the general consensus, based on what I'm getting in phone calls and e-mails. People look at me and ask, "What's with the antics of this team?"

Julia aside, a lot of people are more upset with Resi Stiegler and her pearls and her shaking her ass in the finish area ... before she's ever accomplished anything. The common analogy people are making is that it's like losing the Super Bowl and then spiking the ball in the end zone.

...I think Bode Miller is setting a horrible example for our next generation, and I hope he stops getting attention. And I think he hopes he stops getting attention.

If he resets his motivation, he has five more good years. As for whether he wants that, your guess is as good as mine right now. He probably doesn't even know.

What's really sad is that the majority of the team has been training hard and acting professionally, but the media has been focusing on those who aren't.

I think the U.S. Olympic Committee is going to put some pretty strict rules in place and go into Vancouver with a lot more control over the Olympic team, regardless of who their national governing body is.

In other words, if they can pull it off, the USOC will have the power to remove an athlete from the team because of conduct. If they had that power this time, they absolutely would have used it, with a handful of athletes.

Street has been very outspoken in her criticism of some U.S. ski team athletes.

Is it any wonder?

There have been serious attitude problems and conduct issues. Without a doubt, the poster boy for that is Bode Miller.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Miller didn't come off like an Olympian; he came off like a jerk.

Miller offered up some gems:

"I just did it my way. I'm not a martyr, and I'm not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here."

...As for his obligation to prepare, Miller said he was less ready for these games than the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he won two silver medals.

"I've been living my life as if I might have died two weeks before the Olympics started. That left me the opportunity to dig deep, to go down that other route, to make more sacrifices and get back to where I was."

He called his Olympic experience "awesome" and cited the gold medals by teammates Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety as one reason. Another, he said, was Sestriere's bar scene.

"My quality of life is the priority. I wanted to have fun here, to enjoy the Olympic experience, not be holed up in a closet and not ever leave your room," he said. "People said, 'Why can't you stay in for the two weeks, three weeks? You've got the rest of your life to experience the games the way everybody else does.' But I like the whole package. I always have."

He compared his Olympic experience to fellow American Daron Rahlves, who was a favorite in the downhill and a contender in the super-G but didn't come close to the podium.

"Look at what happened to Rahlves. He was holed up in his RV, he's probably the fittest guy out here and he made a point of talking about how important the Olympics were to him," Miller said. "And then look _ a little bad luck and he's got nothing to show for the whole thing.

"Me, it's been an awesome two weeks," Miller said. "I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level."

He can't be serious!

This guy couldn't be a worse role model for kids, not only young skiers, but any kid watching the Olympics. He's every parent's nightmare.

Miller is way too old to be behaving so childishly. He's a twenty-eight-year old six-year-old.

I'm glad that Miller is happy with his accomplishments at Torino, partying at the Olympic level, because he's got absolutely nothing else to show for his two weeks at the Games.

Miller shouldn't be considered a loser because he failed to get any medals. He's a loser because he doesn't care.

Parents, don't let your babies grow up to be Bode.