ALPINE:

Bode Miller opts out of World Cup Finals

March 8, 2010          ►Photo: Bode Miller (Agence Zoom)

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Triple Olympic medallist Bode Miller will skip World Cup Finals and has not decided on his alpine racing future, the American star reported Monday in his blog on UniversalSports.com.

“I decided I'm not going back to Europe to close out the season,” Miller wrote. “My ankle is still bothering me so I'm going to stay in San Diego and get treatment. I've been getting saline and glucose injections at different spots around the joint to help it heal. It's become a chronic injury because I skied on it for so long when it was injured and it never had a chance to heal. Now it hurts when I do different things and especially when I ski. I need to take some time off to let it heal properly. When that's all sorted out, I'll go back over to Europe and do some testing.”

Miller won gold in super-combined, silver in super-G and bronze in downhill at the Vancouver Winter Games.

“My goal at the beginning of the season was to get ready for the Olympics and to win races in February,” Miller wrote in his blog. “I just sort of focused on that and I did that. If I wasn't injured I would have a made a separate decision about going to finals but that's not the case. I feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to this season so it's nice to just be able to relax in San Diego and hang out with [daughter] Dace. The Olympics were a good experience but it's all been pretty positive in my career.”

Miller, 32, is tied with Lindsey Vonn with 32 career World Cup wins, most all-time by an American. Vonn is in line to secure the overall World Cup title this week at World Cup Finals at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

“I haven't made any decisions about next season,” Miller wrote. “At some point, I'll sit down with [U.S. men’s coach] Sasha [Rearick] and see where we're at and what kind of program we can put together and I'll make a plan from there. My decision will depend on what we come up with and what sponsors think. A lot of different factors will come into play.”  SRC