Live Free Or Die:  The Quotable Bode

If nothing else, at least Bode saw it coming.

“This is going to be a tough thing for me to manage,” U.S. Olympic skier Bode Miller told Sports Illustrated in June 2005.  “My actions are not consistent.  I’m super-mellow and laid back, but I’m always thinking and running 100,000 scenarios through my head.  Sometimes I’m disciplined, but I like to be a total slacker, too.  I party hard, but I train hard.  People are going to try to figure me out and figure out my motivations, and it’s going to be a circus.”

True, that.

In winning zero medals in five tries at these Olympics, and quipping, “At least I won’t have to go down to Torino to the medals plaza tomorrow” after getting disqualified in the Alpine combined event, Bode became the press’s favorite punching bag.

Undoubtedly, pundits and everyday Americans alike feel entitled to spit their vitriol, considering Miller’s role as the face of the U.S. Olympic team in the lead-up to Torino. In the last month or so, Bode’s mug has graced the cover not just of Sports Illustrated, but Time, Newsweek, Outside, and Men’s Journal.  He was proclaimed “Skiing’s Wild Child” (Time) and “The Bad Boy of American Skiing” (Men’s Journal); Nike created a website, joinbode.com, dedicated to all things Bode, then plugged Miller, the site and themselves with endless commercials and banner ads for the site.

With that much hype, and that much money from sponsors, Miller should have delivered more in Turin, right?

Well, maybe.  But maybe we should have expected exactly what we got.

I’ll admit, I haven’t watched much of these Olympics.  But when people are freaking out about something like they have about Bode, I figure I ought to check it out.  And ultimately, I think the furor over Bode Miller says a lot more about us than it does about him.  But rather than try to explain Bode -- or us -- in my words, instead I’m going to give you a few hundred of his.

“What it comes down to is, I owe it to myself and to a lot of other people -- my coaches, my family my teammates -- to take the athletic side of ski racing as far as I can.”

-- As told to Sports Illustrated, December 2004

“The reasons I’m going [to Torino] are really impure, and that definitely bothers me.  The U.S. skiing folks have really done a lot for me. They put up with me, and I push those f---ers hard. I am a constant pain in their a-- about making them do all the s--t I think they should be doing anyway. They’ve had to adapt to me just like I’ve adapted to them, and I think they’ve done exceptionally well. Look, a lot of the people involved with the U.S. Ski Team -- the people that I’m representing -- are unbelievable a--holes. Rich, cocky, wicked conceited, super-right-wing Republicans. But because of my morals, my principles, I can’t judge them for that. The things they’ve done for me warrant respect, and I’m trying to pay them back.”

-- As told to Newsweek

“One of the good things about my career is I have such extensive knowledge, so I always go as hard as I can. Some guys can go 70, 80 percent and get results, but I wouldn’t do that. Some guys might change things up, but some guys don’t. Look at [golfer] Phil Mickelson. He’s virtually all risk, all the time. If you’re unhappy with the way you played, what’s the point? If things went well, I could be sitting on four medals, maybe all of them gold.

-- As told to the Associated Press, February 20

“Motivation is circumstantial.  First night here I went out, and we got a pretty good buzz on.  Last night we went out again.  By the time I got up this morning, I was pretty beat up.  Plus I’m on GS skis that have hardly ever been on snow.  And this is a tough f------ course.  These are things that, for me, mandated an epic effort, digging deep.  So I went out and pulled off things that I’m not sure I could pull off when I’m fully rested and fresh.  It’s not that I was trying to motivate myself, but ski racing is just one component of [my] trying to be happy right now.”

-- As told to Sports Illustrated, December 2005, after racing in Beaver Creek, Colo.

“I think it’s ironic that in society these days, it’s accepted to be who you are, sexually, or your occupation or whatever, nobody seems to want to judge anybody else too harshly, and in sports, it’s still all about winning, it’s not about participation, no one wants to let anyone define what makes them happy or how they do things in athletics; it’s all about winning, and zero flexibility.  I think it’s ironic and depressing, and I’m determined to change it.”

-- As told to Nike, on joinbode.com

“For me, the ideal Olympics would be to go in with all that pressure, all that attention and have performances that are literally tear-jerking, that make people put their heads down because they’re embarrassed at how emotional they’re getting, that make people want to try sports, talk to their kids, call their f---ing ex-wives -- and come away with no medals. I think that would be f---ing epic. That would be the perfect thing.”

-- As told to Newsweek

“The Olympic Creed is great because it’s somebody else’s idea, and it matches up well with mine, which makes me think that either I’m not insane, or somebody else is insane along with me.  It’s unbelievably valuable, that creed.  There’s not many things I feel that way about, because I’m not big on slogans, I’m not big on people buying into something.  But in that, it encompasses a lot.  The information that’s encompassed in that one creed is, I think, something to live by.”

-- As told to Nike, on joinbode.com

“Here it is, read it [the Olympic Creed]. ‘The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle . . .’ Now, does that sound like the Olympics to you? I mean, seriously, that is not what the Olympics are all about when I go there, and I’m doing this s--t. The Olympics are about getting that gold medal or you’re a loser. Like, why even go if you’re not gonna make the podium? That’s not me. The Olympics are just not a pure thing anymore.”

-- As told to Newsweek

“Measuring success with a medal count is pretty f----- up.”

-- As told to Sports Illustrated, June 2005

“I’m surprised I’m still [bothering with the Olympics], actually. Defining your criteria for success is easier when you suck. As you get better, it becomes harder, because the steps you take are smaller and smaller. I don’t need the money. I don’t need the media. All that stuff just makes you into a worse person, and I am, for sure, much more of a dick now than I used to be. Because I have to deal with people all the time who feel like they know me from seeing me on TV. OK, you might think you know me, but I don’t know you, so don’t f---ing come up and give me high-fives and say ‘sign this.’ Coming from a small town, that’s not the way I want to be. After a few hundred thousand times, it wears on you.”

-- As told to Newsweek

“I believe that TV and media right now these days are brutally mind-numbing and tedious.  And athletics is a place where finding your truth, finding your happiness as a person, is a reality and, athletes do it on a regular basis.  But unfortunately, they’re in a constant battle, with trying to have other people tell them how to succeed, how to be happy.  So my program is, do it the way that I love to, and that’s it.”

-- As told to Nike, on joinbode.com

“You guys write what you want to write.  That’s your prerogative.  It’s my prerogative to f--- with you.  I contradict myself all the time.”

-- As told to Men’s Journal, March 2006

Say what you will about the man -- as an athlete, a skier, a human billboard or a human being -- and you’ll probably be right, at least some of the time.

Just don’t try to say he doesn’t make for great copy.