All you Bode haters -- get over it

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. -- The temptation after taking in Bode Miller's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of a downhill run Saturday here at the Birds of Prey course, Bode riffing and recovering while ripping down the mountain, is to declare, with emphasis: Bode is back.

And thus: All you Bode haters out there -- get over it.

This year's ski season, to and through and then even beyond the Vancouver Olympics, turned Saturday into a far more interesting proposition, because Bode took fourth in the downhill -- fourth just weeks after he started skiing again, and on one of the world's most treacherous tracks.

Fourth, just 45-hundredths of a second out of first.

"When the conditions are fairly even, like they are today, there's no question that I have the ability to win races," Bode said afterward. "But little things like mistakes have always been an issue for me. If I had a clean run today, I think I would have been on top of the podium."

The U.S. men's coach, Sasha Rearick, declared, "To see an inspirational run out of Bode like that -- I mean, he was charging," adding a moment later, referring now to the big picture of Bode's return, "I think it was a good step forward. A really, realy strong step forward."

If you know anything about skiing, you know that Bode is the greatest alpine skier (male division) this country has ever produced. (Lindsey Vonn won again Saturday in the downhill, racing in Canada, just as she did Friday. She is extraordinary.)

If you don't know the first thing about skiing but you can nonetheless appreciate athletic greatness, Bode is your guy.

What if that were the Bode story -- not his adventures in Torino at the 2006 Winter Games?

Bode has moved past 2006.

The rest of you?

The U.S. team is deep -- three guys in the top 15 Saturday, Miller fourth and then Andrew Weibrecht 11th and Marco Sullivan 14th. Bode makes them deeper.

You sense in Bode's appearances now an excitement about ski racing that those of us who have been privileged to write about the ski scene for a long time haven't seen in, well, a long time.

You also sense in Bode, and this is new, an unusual patience about him. Fatherhood apparently suits him.

And then this, same as it ever was: Bode rocks and rolls, and turns on a crowd, like no one else, and that's taking nothing away from Carlo Janka, the Swiss who doubled up Friday's super-combined win with victory in Saturday's downhill, or Didier Cuche, the Swiss veteran who took second Saturday, or Aksel Lund Svindal, the Norwegian who barrelled his way to third.

It takes nothing away from Hermann Maier, the Herminator himself, the Austrian great who loved it here and was loved in return -- so admired that they played Hermann's theme song here, AC/DC's "Hell's Bells," during a short break, and everyone knew why.

All these guys are great skiers. But there's only one Bode, and everywhere they come to see Bode because no one does what Bode does but Bode -- traversing the fine line between controlled recklessness and reckless disregard.

Near the top of the course Saturday, Bode almost lost it.

But -- and this is what they really come to see -- Bode recovered. He had made a mistake that threw him into the air and off the course, into soft snow. He put his glove down and somehow pulled himself back up.

Near the bottom, Bode almost lost it again.

Again, he recovered.

The second glitch likely won't happen in a few more weeks. Bode said, "My legs just aren't as strong as they they should be right now. I just got a little bit rotated and I couldn't hold it. And that cost me another couple tenths."

Soft snow is slow snow. That's 45-hundredths right there, pretty much.

Don't believe that they come to see Bode? Here's video, shot by the Vail Valley Foundation, of Bode crossing the line. You want crowd reaction? See for yourself.

Believe this, too: The other skiers took keen notice Saturday of the result. Bode got fourth, and he's not yet in top shape.

"Maybe it's a good thing he didn't work out so much this summer," Svindal said of Bode, adding, "Otherwise, we would be in trouble."

Echoed Cuche, "An amazing result what he did today, with less training in the summer -- being fourth, just four-tenths back. He's a really talented guy."

Franz Klammer, the winningest World Cup downhiller of all time, the man who turned in the legendary on-the-edge 1976 Olympic downhill run, saw Bode's run Saturday from the finish area.

The master knows. Klammer declared of Bode, "I think he is back."