Miller wary of fame

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – As Bode Miller’s skiing reaches a whole different level, so does his wariness.

In Europe, he and teammate Daron Rahlves – who joined Miller on the podium in Beaver Creek in their 1-2 downhill finish Friday – are treated like rock stars by ski fans. Miller has seen 17,000 screaming, cowbell-ringing fans lining the course in Austria.

It’s cool. It’s also a little unnerving. Miller frets that he and the U.S. team can become targets for banned-substance sabotage.

“It would be so, so easy for somebody to slip into our hotel and just slip some kind of drug or whatever into the pasta,” Miller said. “We all eat the same stuff. It wouldn’t even be a challenge at all. It would take no effort. Our whole team would be disqualified.”

Track star Maurice Greene refuses to drink water from pitchers in a restaurant. He will drink only bottled water that he opens himself.

Neither Miller nor U.S. men’s coach Phil McNichol have heard about any ski team’s food being tampered with, or even rumors of that happening. Alpine skiers have rarely flunked doping tests. But Miller said he would not be surprised if something happened.

“Common sense would tell you, there’s so much money riding on the sport,” he said. “I don’t think it would be another athlete. I don’t think it would even be a coach or an organizer. I think it would be some crazy fan or somebody who wanted to get attention on themselves.

“The fact of the matter is, that’s a really obvious thing. At least you need some kind of proactive approach for that.”

Miller needn’t worry about his food getting spiked these days when the team leaves Beaver Creek after Sunday’s slalom for Europe and the meat of the World Cup season. For the second year, he’ll motor between races in Europe in an RV. A longtime buddy drives the bus and cooks Miller’s meals.

He launched the Bodemobile experiment to reduce fatigue. Instead of lugging gear in and out of hotels every week, Miller can park his RV in parking lots at the base of the ski slope and walk to work.

“It really made a huge difference being able to control my sleeping environment, my eating environment, my relaxing environment better than any hotel … eating (lousy) hotel food, (sleeping in a lousy) hotel bed,” he said.

But he thinks the U.S. team needs a more vigilant food plan.

“With food, we just go into regular average hotels and we’re there for a week,” said Miller, 27. “We don’t do any checking up on the food or anything like that. … It’s not something I’m overly concerned with, but in the next couple of years with the Olympics or world championships, you at least have to recognize the possibility of something like that.”

Miller, Rahlves draw Austrian envy

The Austrians are irked. Hermann Maier spent part of the four-race Beaver Creek series grousing about his boots. But what really has the Austrians peeved is that Miller and Rahlves are beating them with retired downhill champion Stephan Eberharter’s ski technician this season.

The result: Miller has five top-three finishes in six races; Rahlves was runner-up in the Beaver Creek downhill and was fifth twice at Lake Louise, Alberta. They’ve noticed a difference.

“When you’re younger and coming up the ranks in the World Cup, nobody acknowledges you,” Rahlves said. “It finally took some good results (and they”re) buddying up with you.

“We train with the Austrians. They want to know why we’re skiing so fast, what boots we’re on,” he said. “Now their eyes are opened up. They’re waiting for us to come down (the course) before they celebrate.”