Lauberhorn Training 2 and Bode

Many good things to talk about today: second Lauberhorn training run and more from Bode.

So let's talk about the most important things first: training run results! http://www.fis-ski.com

1- Eric Guay
2- Peter Fill
3t- Miller
7-Aamodt
14- Rahlves
18-Kjus
19-Svindal
32- Sullivan

The course is running 2:32 for the fastest guys all the way to 2:47 for the later runners. I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty long stinking time to be on a downhill course. Earlier in the week, I thought Walchofer would have been more of a factor, yet he finished 28th on this run. That doesn't necessarily mean that he won't be fast on race day, but I still would have expected him to be further up. Miller is looking very solid with a third and fifth so far and I think he will be on the podium Saturday.

More Bode Miller
It's too bad that I didn't get my post up yesterday shortly following Phil McNichols' comments on Bode. Today, things turned out about as expected, and I want to point out that perhaps Phil missed an opportunity to take the high road and keep himself out of the crossfire. As many of you saw, Bill Marolt planned a quick trip to Europe to address the situation as any good US Ski Team CEO should. (See http://www.skiracing.com and the Jan. 10 Blood's Blog post for more comments.). Even after Bill said he was coming across the pond, Phil spoke out in the press about how Bode is sort of a cowboy and that he needs to decide if he wants to be on the US Ski Team. Interesting. I'll assume that Phil has nothing but good intentions here, and he is just somewhat frustrated with the whole scene. His frustruation is very understandable, but there wasn't really any reason for him to speak publicly. He has Mr. Marolt providing pretty significant air cover already, and even if Bill wasn't coming over, Phil could also defer to Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. Better yet, Phil could have had all the fun of teeing off on Bode in private and then sort of give a glazed look to the press and grumble about having to focus on getting four Americans qualified for the olympic slalom. There was an opportunity to actually build some more trust with Bode (read: more leverage later), let Bill be the bad guy and avoid most of the mess.

So today Bode delivered a short but sincere apology to the European press contingent and then went to play hockey with his teammates. Bill Marolt was quoted as being "delighted" with Bode's comments and that the topic of Bode not skiing with the team "never came up." It's kind of funny because now Bill is looking like the benevolent father who figures out how to keep the kids in line without making them look bad. What happened to big, bad Bill? And what's up with Phil? I didn't see any comments from him, and I think everyone's cool, but like I said earlier, maybe he didn't need to get himself caught in the middle.