04/25/24
May 12, 2007
Bode goes indy: : after 11 years as a member of the US Ski Team, Bode Miller elects to compete as an independent.
posted by lil_brown_bat to other at 05:21 PM - 10 comments
Excellent post lbb, thanks.
posted by insomnyuk at 07:46 PM on May 12, 2007
There's also some bizarre tangentially Bode Miller news today: His cousin killed a cop and was then killed by a bystander who picked up the cop's gun.
posted by rcade at 11:09 PM on May 12, 2007
rcade, that's an interesting side article. Seems Miller's cousin was quite the aggressive personality. Awful that a cop lost his life! Did you note the cousin's job? Picking fiddlehead ferns....now there's a career!
posted by dviking at 11:53 AM on May 13, 2007
Evidently, the bad blood between the police officer and the Miller/Kenney families went back a long way. In an article in the Nashua (NH) Telegraph this morning, reference is made to Bode Miller's arrest for speeding in Franconia. Miller was quoted as saying something to the effect that he came back to fight the ticket "just to aggravate Officer McKay". The Telegraph article requires registration, so I have not included a link. This one gives access to the local TV coverage.
posted by Howard_T at 01:34 PM on May 13, 2007
That article is bizarre. BODE MILLER's cousin KILLS COP, with a Bode Miller photo right beside the headline.
posted by mkn at 11:21 AM on May 14, 2007
There's also some bizarre tangentially Bode Miller news today: His cousin killed a cop and was then killed by a bystander who picked up the cop's gun. I take issue with the use of the word "news". It's hardly news up here when someone shoots a cop. You have to be more creative than that.
posted by yerfatma at 11:49 AM on May 14, 2007
That article is bizarre. BODE MILLER's cousin KILLS COP, with a Bode Miller photo right beside the headline. Heh, yeah. I'm sure a lot of people who glanced at that now think that Bode killed a cop.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:21 PM on May 14, 2007
Getting back on topic: It's always been there in the fine print, that athletes could go independent and compete outside the "US Ski Team", but still represent the US. lbb, is there a limit to the number of US skiers who can compete in a World Cup event? What about the Olympics? And if there is a limit, who chooses those representatives? This is generally where those "governing organizations" get their power -- for example I assume that the FIS asks the USSA (with the USOC's stamp of approval) to name the USA team for the Olympics.
posted by Amateur at 03:11 PM on May 14, 2007
Good question, Amateur. There are limits to the number who can start, but there's also the matter of qualifying. Deep in the bowels of the FIS rules are the terms under which athletes qualify for various events, and typically it's a matter of having earned a certain number of points in other FIS events. I don't know what's specific to the Olympics; OTOH, Kristina Koznick competed in the Olympics while she was an independent. I don't know if the USSA has ever tried to prevent independents from competing, but if they tried it with the Collection they would have met with dismal failure.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:09 PM on May 14, 2007
A bit of background: the name "US Ski Team" is a bit of a misnomer. The US Ski Team is the competitive "ski" part of the USSA (US Ski and Snowboard Association), an organization that appointed itself (or filled a vacuum, depending on your POV) as the governing organization for ski and snowboard competition in the United States (or at least in the Olympic disciplines). The USSA "owns" said competition, insofar as it does, by virtue of the fact that the path to greatness in many ski and snowboarding disciplines is through USSA junior competition: you want to become successful enough to hit the big time, you're going to have to go through the USSA to do so. At the same time, the USSA never owned the right to control who may compete for the United States in international competition. It's always been there in the fine print, that athletes could go independent and compete outside the "US Ski Team", but still represent the US. Historically, not many athletes chose to do so, because it meant that you had to handle all your own expenses -- for travel, for coaching, for everything -- and handle all the red tape involved in competition. Then, a couple of years ago, a group of elite snowboarders formed the Collection, an independent team, essentially showing how it could be done (and why it should be done). The principal reason for Miller, or any athlete, to leave the US Ski Team would probably be to be free of the team's rules and restrictions. Ironically, freedom from one particular rule might also provide the means to make it viable to go independent. US Ski Team athletes are free to cut their own sponsorship and endorsement deals, but not with companies that compete with team sponsors. What that basically means is that, since the US Ski Team has (for example) a car sponsor, athletes cannot get an endorsement deal with a car manufacturer: they're not allowed to get a deal with any other manufacturer, and the team's sponsor is probably not going to pay them additional endorsement money since they've already paid to be a team sponsor. Freed of that restriction, individual team members have some improved ability to pick up endorsements that might help them make the financial nut. All that is just background re: what makes it possible for Miller to go independent and still compete for the US. What makes him want to do it...well, read the article. He feels that he does better when he can train, travel, live and compete in a way that US Ski Team rules no longer allow, and the results tend to strongly support him.