Bode Miller Is a Rare Olympic Bird

Vancouver, British Columbia

On Saturday, in what could be his last run at the Winter Olympics, Bode Miller will try to win his first medal in an Olympic men's slalom event.

No matter what happens, this Olympics has already cemented Mr. Miller's place as the most successful skier in U.S. history. If he can pull off a win in the slalom, he'll rival French legend Jean-Claude Killy as one of the greatest and most versatile Olympic skiers of all time.

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Bode Miller races in the men's downhill on Feb. 15.

Saturday may be a last chance for a glimpse at a skier rarer than most people realize. Heading into Saturday's slalom, Mr. Miller, 32 years old, has five Olympic medals, including one gold, spread among four of skiing's five disciplines.

Mr. Miller broke onto the scene as a slalom specialist in the mid-1990s, wearing the first generation of curved skis to help him power through turns in a way no one had before. His two silver medals at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 came in combined and giant slalom.

As he shifted his focus to speed events, coaches worried his reckless style would lead to a career-ending injury.

That didn't happen, and now, far beyond the age when most skiers win slaloms, Mr. Miller still judges himself by how quickly he can dance through the gates.

"It's always been my dream to win in slalom," Mr. Miller said after taking his first gold medal in the combined in Vancouver. "I've always said, when you're skiing well, there's nothing better than slalom."

Mr. Miller hasn't said he'll retire after the Olympics, and now that he's winning again, he has suggested he may well return to the World Cup circuit.

Professional skiing is a grind, both mentally and physically, and especially for Americans—who often spend up to seven months far away from home each year. Mr. Miller has noted how his desire to spend time with his 2-year-old daughter often outweighs his desire to ski faster than anyone else. So it seems unlikely that Mr. Miller will still be on the slopes in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

He has won five world-championship medals and 32 World Cup races, but he also has 68 World Cup podiums and two overall World Cup titles. That's a résumé that rivals that of France's Mr. Killy—who is still considered the gold standard of skiing. Mr. Killy famously swept the alpine competitions at the 1968 Olympics.

"You're just not going to see a skier like Bode come around ever again," said Tom Kelly, the longtime spokesman for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. "A guy who's won World Cup races, overall titles and Olympic medals. That just doesn't happen."

By now, Mr. Miller's return to the U.S. team last year is part of skiing lore. He'd quit two years earlier to form his own, self-financed team because he didn't like the way Team USA was being run.

This came a year after Mr. Miller had boasted of his late-night carousing during the Turin Olympics, where he won no medals, despite hype that made him a favorite in all five competitions before the Games.

Mr. Miller said this week his behavior in Turin was his way of taking back his identity after seeing it hijacked by the media.

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Last spring, Sasha Rearick, the men's alpine coach for the U.S. team, called Mr. Miller and asked if he wanted to return. Mr. Miller told him no thanks and spent the summer playing golf and fooling around on the beach with his daughter.

"After everything I'd done, I thought I deserved some time not trying to kill myself every day," Mr. Miller said.

But by September, Mr. Miller was considering a comeback and flew to Utah to discuss it with Mr. Rearick. "I saw the problems he'd had in the past that forced him to leave the team as opportunities," said Mr. Rearick.

He welcomed Mr. Miller back even though a World Cup season was just six weeks away and Mr. Miller was completely out of sync physically with his teammates. "I was pretty much on my own," Mr. Miller said.

He'll be on his own on the hill Saturday, trying to win that elusive slalom medal.

Write to Matthew Futterman at matthew.futterman@wsj.com

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