Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ARNIE STAPLETON
Associated Press
BEAVER CREEK, Colo. - Two seconds kept Bode Miller out of danger and in line for another World Cup victory. Miller won a downhill race Friday, his 22nd World Cup win, because he kept his cool when a Slovenian coach went skidding across his path barely two gates in front of him.
Had he fallen just two seconds later, the green-clad trainer would have taken out the 2004 World Cup champion.
"It was scary," said U.S. men's head coach Phil McNichol, who watched from a few hundred yards below. "I think an athlete as good as Bode probably could have dodged him, jumped over him, turned around him or stopped.
"But if the guy had blindsided him, it could have been anything from a hangnail to, well, death."
The Slovenian coach, wearing ski boots but no skis, was standing on a small platform chipped out of the snow inside the safety netting on the first steep section of the course.
He dropped his start list and bent over to catch it so it wouldn't blow onto the track and hinder the racers. But he slipped and fell on the icy pitch and went sliding down out of control at top speed.
Miller, famously unflappable, was going into a right-footed turn when the coach swept across the track. He neither flinched nor slowed. In fact, Miller picked up speed and said afterward he had likely reached speeds near 70 mph when the incident occurred.
"As I was finishing that turn he was going right across the track in a big ball of snow," Miller said. "But by the time I got into that turn I realized he was going to be out of the way.
"At that point I would have had good cause for a rerun had I wanted one, but I hadn't made any big mistakes up above and didn't feel like going back up there again. So I just kept racing."
The 29-year-old carried on to capture his first World Cup downhill victory in two years.
Was he scared?
"If you've seen that course, there's not much room for another jolt of adrenaline once you're going down. You're already jolted pretty solid," Miller said with a grin.
Such close calls in ski racing are infrequent, but can be extremely dangerous.
In 2001, France's Regine Cavagnoud died from head injuries after slamming into German coach Markus Anwander during a training session in Austria.
Last season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a course worker walked into Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister's path during the downhill leg of a super combi. The experienced skier was traveling at almost 50 mph at the time and reacted quickly, lifting her right ski and swerving closer to the gate to avoid him.
Photographers given course access during races are required to wear spikes on their boots to avoid such situations. Coaches are not.
"They get a course access because they're professionals so they should have professional judgment," McNichol said. "If someone decides to stand where it's too hard to dig your feet in and have a flat surface then they should stand in their skis.
"It was an accident and really unfortunate and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, I guess. Hopefully he learned a lesson."
Guenther Hujara, the men's World Cup race director, said earlier in the week he was concerned about the number of people on the course during races here, estimating about 500 for Thursday's super combi.
"I have nightmares about this kind of thing," he said. "It doesn't matter what we do - we can take all the precautions imaginable but this kind of this is still going to happen. We can't prevent 100 percent of accidents."
Though no one would mention the name of the coach, he apologized to Miller and the U.S. team.
"I just froze when I saw him coming down" said Urban Planisek of the Slovenian coaching staff. "This can't happen. It was an accident and he feels terrible."
Miller covered the Birds of Prey course in 1 minute, 46.15 seconds, .15 ahead of runner-up Didier Cuche of Switzerland. Another American, Steve Nyman, was third, 0.33 back.
The results marked a return to form for Miller, who'd finished no better than 14th in this season.
