28th February 2008
Austria's Benjamin Raich collected his first major tournament medal after
winning the men's combined at the World Championships event in Bormio,
Italy last weekend.
But all the excitement was caused by defending champion and Concorde
Motorhome owner, Bode Miller, who
lost a ski in the downhill stage.
Miller, the winner of Saturday's super-G and the pre-race favourite for the
downhill, appeared to catch an edge only 15 seconds into his run but delighted
the crowd by continuing on one ski.
The popular American, World Ski Champion and Concorde Motorhome
owner, eventually lost his footing and skied off the course before the finish.
Miller said he was not trying to compete once he had lost his ski but simply
wanted to finish so he could get two slalom runs under his belt.
"I was going 70 or 75mph at that point so it was a matter of time before I could
stop anyway," he said.
"So I took the next turn and then thought I'd see if I could get down to the
bottom because the two slalom runs would have been good practice. But then I
fell on my ass anyway."
Eventual winner Raich said: "I am very sorry for Bode but it was super how he
reacted."
Bode Miller's coach Phil McNichol, however, was less impressed with his charge's
response.
"That's not worth ending your season for," McNichol said.
"He wasn't in contention at the first split time, so I don't care how
big his cape is."
And bronze medallist Rocca seemed to think he could do even better.
"If I was in Bode's situation then I might have continued to go down on one ski
too, only I'd have gone all the way, maybe swapping the ski onto my other foot
halfway down if I was tired!"
>> More on this story from the BBC
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