Sochi Olympics 2014 Hometown Hero – Bode Miller

Bode Miller, who is aiming to become the first American skier to compete at five Games, is coming off his strongest Olympics to date. After a disappointing performance in Torino, where he was heavily favored but failed to win a medal in any of his five events, Miller collected one medal of each color in Vancouver, becoming the most decorated U.S. skier in Olympic history, with five career medals. A left knee injury suffered at the Sochi test event in February 2012 led to season-ending microfracture surgery that also kept him sidelined throughout the 2012-13 campaign.

Career highlights

• 2010: Olympics – Gold (super-combined), Silver (super-G), Bronze (downhill)
• 2008: World Cup Standings – 1^st (overall, super-combined)
• 2007: World Cup Standings – 1^st (super-G)
• 2007: U.S. Championships – Gold (super-G)
• 2006: U.S. Championships – Gold (giant slalom, downhill)
• 2005: World Championships – Gold (downhill, super-G)
• 2005: World Cup Standings – 1^st (overall, super-G)
• 2004: World Cup Standings – 1^st (super-combined, giant slalom)
• 2003: World Championships – Gold (giant slalom, super-combined), Silver (super-G)
• 2003: World Cup Standings – 1^st (super-combined)
• 2003: U.S. Championships – Gold (slalom, super-G, super-combined)
• 2002: Olympics – Silver (giant slalom, super-combined)
• 2002: U.S. Championships – Gold (slalom, super-combined)
• 1998: U.S. Championships – Gold (giant slalom)

Things to know

1. Miller grew up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The family’s backwoods cabain had no plumbing or electricity. He was homeschooled by his mother until third grade.

2. Horse trainer Bob Baffert named his son after Miller in 2004 after watching the skier’s performance at the Salt Lake City Games. The two didn’t actually meet until the 2005 Kentucky Derby. In 2012, Baffert’s horse Bodemeister won the Arkansas Derby and finished second at both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

3. The last two years have been filled with personal thrills and tragedies off the slope for Miller. In October 2012, he married professional beach volleyball player Morgan Beck. In February 2013, Miller’s former girlfriend, Sara McKenna, gave birth to a son, Samuel Bode Miller McKenna, his second child. In April 2013, his younger brother Chelone, who was an Olympic hopeful in snowboard cross, died of an apparent seizure.