ST. ANTON, Austria, 16 February 2004 — American Bode Miller surged back into the race for the overall World Cup crown after pulverizing his rivals’ times to win his first slalom in more than two years yesterday.
Miller, leading after the first leg by a slim margin of 0.17 seconds, charged down the sun-drenched Sonnenwiese course for a combined time of one minute 34.60 seconds.
The American’s win, his third of the Alpine ski season following two giant slalom triumphs, was all the more impressive as he obliterated Kalle Palander’s leading time by 0.95 seconds.
The Finnish World Cup champion, who placed second for his fifth podium of the season including three wins, shook his head in admiration as he enthusiastically clapped Miller’s heart-stopping performance.
Mario Matt, slalom world champion in 2001 at this Tyrolean resort, raced into third place for his first top-three finish since a long battle back from injury.
All-rounder Miller, who is bidding to become the first American since Phil Mahre in 1983 to win the overall title, was due a win after placing at least fourth in the four slaloms he had completed this winter.
After a clean first run in which he said he held back, Miller exploded down the course at such speed that he came close to crashing out. “This was rock-and-rolling down the course, just how I like it — no fluke and taking a lot of risks,” the 26-year-old Miller said in the finish area.
“I risked a lot in the second run and almost went down a few times, but it was really fun.”
“It was very nice to cross the finish line and see you’ve won although you’ve made so many mistakes,” the daredevil racer from New Hampshire added.
Miller, eighth in Saturday’s downhill here, now lies third in the overall standings 70 points behind leader Hermann Maier of Austria.
He won his last slalom at Schladming in January 2002 and was close to his second victory there three weeks ago after building up a comfortable lead in the first run.
But he had to settle for fourth place after his start in the second leg was delayed by 20 minutes due to a crash by Croat Ivica Kostelic. It was a bad day for Austrian Benjamin Raich, who had been hoping to recapture the lead in the overall standings from Maier with a good result here.
Raich, who has won two slaloms this season and needed to come at least second to overtake Maier, was on course for a top time before he straddled a gate within sight of the finish line in the first leg and was disqualified.
