Bode, be like Beckham

If Bode Miller needs to find new forms of inspiration as he attempts a comeback to superiority in an Olympic year, he should look toward an athlete whose reputation permeates more profoundly than even his does throughout the sports world.

More specifically, Miller should examine the recent triumphs of Brit David Beckham. Miller should try to be like Beckham, who has endured a recent troubling time span to emerge as a positive and effective force for his teams.  

Beckham has overcome some obtrusive odds to revive his pro and international careers. Beckham's critics - which included me - considered him an indifferent and aloof opportunist and a destructive force during his first two years with the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Now, many of those same critics claim his inspired play this season has helped the Galaxy advance to the MLS Cup this weekend.

Few athletes have won as many professional club championships as Beckham; he boasts more than a dozen domestic and European titles. Still, England’s then new national team coach, Steve McLaren, initially assessed Beckham to be an afterthought after the player stepped down as team captain following the 2006 World Cup and dropped him from the roster.

Beckham has revived his national team career. His return to the team in 2007 coincided with Fabio Capello taking over as England’s head coach the same year. Capello was the coach of Real Madrid in 2007 when the team, led by Beckham, won Spain’s premier division La Liga.

Beckham played in nine of England’s ten 2010 World Cup qualifiers, starting one. England won nine of the games and is a favorite to host the Cup in South Africa this summer. Expect Beckham, 34, to play at least a prominent supportive role.

Beckham has led a revived Galaxy team, which had missed the playoffs three consecutive years, to the MLS championship game on Nov. 22. Since he joined the team for the 2009 season on July 16 following the end of his Italian league season with AC Milan, the Galaxy have lost only twice in 14 games and ended the regular season as the Western Conference winners.

With the help of new Galaxy management, he has at least publicly mended his manners with team captain Landon Donovan, who lost that title to Beckham when he joined the Galaxy in 2007. Donovan heavily criticized Beckham’s role with the team in a book about last season released earlier this year.

The visual of Beckham and Donovan arm-in arm with broad smiles after Donovan converted a penalty kick to clinch the Western Conference playoff title last weekend symbolized the transformation of their relationship.

“This year he realized he can change the game,” Donovan said during a recent conference call. “He’s come to play every single game this year.”

If you bet Beckham salary money (a reported $6.5 million in 2009) that Miller would win a medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics, the wager would not have been considered risky. Miller was the dominant force in Alpine skiing prior to those Games. In 2004 and 2005 he won overall and super-G World Cup titles and finished second in the downhill and giant slalom.

But he failed to win a medal in Torino, where he attracted more attention for his off-slope maneuvers than his skiing.
 
Since the 2006 Games, Miller has staged a slow but sporadic resurgence of his own. In the overall World Cup standings, he finished fourth in 2007 and won the globe in 2008. But last season, hindered by injury and ending his season early in part to spend time with his infant daughter, Miller finished 16th overall in the World Cup standings.

At the world championships he recorded three DNFs in five events and had a top finish of eighth in the downhill. It was his worst performance at a world championship since 2001 when he did not finish in the only event in which he competed.

On the season, Miller failed to win a race for the first time since 2001. It was his worst season finish since 2001 when he was 42nd in the standings during his third year of World Cup competitions.

Like Beckham, Miller has endured time away from his national program, skiing on his own for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Following the tribulations of the 2009 season, Miller in early September reached out to U.S. Alpine head coach Sasha Rearick, who took over the team last year. Rearick, sensing a renewed team commitment from Miller, officially welcomed him back to the U.S. team about two weeks later.

Rearick says that when he asked Miller why he wanted to come back to the U.S. Team, Miller said he wanted to achieve greatness.
 
Since he’s already considered the greatest American skier of all time with a U.S. record 31 World Cup wins, two Olympic silver medals and four world championship titles, that must mean winning Olympic gold. Miller told Rearick that he wants the coach to hold him accountable to give 100 percent everyday and lead by example.

Has fatherhood mellowed Mr. Adventure? Perhaps. By rejoining the U.S. team Miller’s life became potentially less adventurous and more simple. Miller can now concentrate on simply skiing rather than planning travel and other draining logistical duties.

Miller has said he doesn’t expect to be race fit until he plans to compete in the downhill and super-G in Lake Louise Nov. 28 and 29. A DNF season debut at Levi last weekend should not concern his believers.

Universal Sports ski broadcaster Steve Porino told me earlier this week that Miller is integrating well into the U.S. team dynamic. Miller joined the U.S. team at the New York Ski and Snowboard Association Ball on Oct. 29 to help raise money for the USSA a few days after U.S. skiers completed the first World Cup stop in Soelden.
 
Will the new change of environment help Miller win a well-deserved first Olympic gold medal three months from now in Vancouver in what may be his last try at Games glory?

Will Beckham, some six months later, help England win its first World Cup title since 1966 in what will likely be his final World Cup run with the national team?

If so, they would be well-deserved achievements for two global sports icons.
 
Sanya on Semenya - The IAAF announced this week that it will delay its decision that will determine the competitive classification of South African runner Caster Semenya, whose gender came into question after she won the women’s 800 meters at the 2009 World Championships. The IAAF was expected to make a decision at its Council Meeting this weekend in Monaco. They now say there is no timetable for the decision.

American runner Sanya Richards, the 2009 400m world champion, got out ahead of the story on Nov. 14 and said on the BBC radio show Sports World that Semenya should not be allowed to compete as a woman if her testosterone levels are determined to be considerably higher than normal.

Richards expanded on those thoughts when reached by phone earlier this week.

“I’d like it to be understood that I sympathize with her, it’s just been terrible what she’s been through,” she said. “But if her testosterone is three or four times higher than most of us, it’s a distinct advantage for her. It will open up a serious can of worms if we allow someone who has that much more testosterone to compete as a woman. It’s not about Caster; it’s about the future of our sport. It’s almost like racing an average boy. I’ve trained with some average level males and they’re usually faster than girls since they have higher levels of testosterone.”

Semenya will retain the gold medal and prize money she won at the world championships.

To a merrier note, Richards has set the date for her wedding to Aaron Ross, a cornerback for the New York Giants of the NFL, for the end of February. The two met while they attended the University of Texas.

Richards was considering competing during the 2010 indoor season for the first time since 2006 but chose not to because of the wedding plans.

World Cup rewind – It’s time for FIFA to finally institute a video-replay policy for international soccer. France’s win over Ireland Wednesday in a World Cup qualifier after France scored an illegal goal in stoppage time cements that declaration. What’s better for the integrity of the game? Allowing video replays in some situations or accept unfair circumstances that lead to varnished victories?

FIFA should adopt a policy that allows replays only for calls or non-calls on fouls during plays that result in a goal or a penalty kick. The flow of the game would be minimally affected since play is already interrupted at the end of most of those situations.

The replay would come only from a coach’s protest. To avoid excessive protests, if one is overruled, the team would lose a substitution. If all substitutions have been used, the team that requests the replay would be forced to remove one field player or lose a substitution in its next non-friendly competition.

Replays would be limited to games that are qualifiers and final round games for continental championships and the World Cup, as well as for national cup tournament championship games.  

Replaying games is not practical. Keep the situation within the context of the original game. If a player from the original game suffers an injury before the replayed game, the original situation would not be fairly replicated.

Does this make sense? Or does it appear as if I’ve hit too many awkward head balls in my Saturday soccer games?