Bode Miller’s Tennis Career Goes Downhill Fast

In case you were wondering if prowess on the ski slope would translate to success in another athletic arena, say tennis, Bode Miller proved it doesn’t.

Miller, who won three medals at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver for Team USA, failed in his bid to qualify for the U.S. Open, losing in a first-round match in a sectional tournament in Hawaii.

A former state champion tennis player in high school in Maine, Miller has barely played the sport since the end of the Olympics and, not surprisingly, it showed.

Rust, though, wasn’t Miller’s biggest problem. It turns out someone born and raised in New England and used to training in Alpine-like conditions had a difficult time adjusting to the sunshine and 80-degree temperature.

“It gets hot like that, I get claustrophobic, can’t breathe, can’t motivate myself to focus,” Miller said. “Between sets, I was dying. I had nothing left.”