Three cheers for Bode!
Posted: Monday, May 14, 2007 10:56 AM
I hope Bode Miller is back on the World Cup ski tour next year as an independent contractor. And I hope he has more fun than everybody else on the tour combined.
A couple of days ago, he announced that he was quitting the U.S. Ski Team. His reason was typically honest: It’s no fun having to stay in hotels and follow a lot of rules.
It’s a good reason for someone who titled his book “Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun,” a good reason for a man who totally bombed in the 2006 Turin Olympics but left town declaring that he had had a splendid time and had done some Olympic-class partying.
I was among the many who were critical of his performance and his attitude. I’m not apologizing for anything I said. Nor am I taking anything back. He was a member of Team USA then, and as such had an obligation to his team and his country to behave and compete in a manner that brought pride to all. When you’re a member of a team, you sacrifice something of your own ego for the good of all. You might even sacrifice a few beers to the common good.
I always liked the way he went about his sport. He didn’t follow anyone’s rules, never played it safe, never backed out of an event to save wear and tear on his body and maybe increase his chances of winning the World Cup, which he did in 2005.
He was and is the quintessential American individualist, raised in a cabin near Franconia, N.H. without indoor plumbing or electricity. Somehow, he grew to maturity without the benefit of television and the Internet. Imagine that.
Having been raised outside the herd, he never saw a reason to go along with it. So he traveled the European tour in his own motor home, keeping his own hours, making his own rules.
This year, U.S. Ski Team officials demanded that he move into hotels with the team and follow the schedules made up by the team coaches. He did it, but he hated it. So he did the only honorable thing — he quit.
I couldn’t support his independent ways as a member of the team. But now that he’s declared himself a free agent, I’ll be rooting for him. Not necessarily to win, although that’s always nice. But to have fun, to go fast, to enjoy the hell out of life.
Now, if he says satisfying himself is more important than winning, I can get behind him. He won’t be hurting his team anymore. And, since he sets his own standards, he won’t be hurting himself, either. If he wins, great. If he doesn’t, he’ll be able to cope. He never did judge himself by our standards anyway. Now, we can’t judge him by our standards, either.
He’s got a family tragedy to deal with right now. His cousin, Liko Kenney, shot and killed a New Hampshire cop and was in turn shot and killed by a motorist who came upon the scene. The story reads like a bad novel. Kenney and the policeman, Cpl. Bruce McKay, had been engaged in a running dispute and hated each other. There was so much bad blood between them that Kenney had the right to request another cop to come and arrest him if he was stopped by McKay. Last week, McKay stopped Kenney for speeding. Kenney fled and was stopped again. McKay pepper-sprayed Kenney, who then shot McKay.
It’s an awful story, and if there’s a moral to it, I’ve yet to find it. After it happened, Miller went home to Franconia to be with his family. He didn’t go to make speeches or blame people, but to help his family cope.
In my book, it makes him a pretty good guy. I wish him well.
