Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 Men’s Downhill results: Bode Miller flames out in final

Bode Miller of Team USA had control of a difficult Alpine course in Sochi, until it counted. He struggled in the final, leading to Austria’s first gold medal of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Miller positioned himself for the gold following a stellar week of practice that made his competitors take notice. World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won silver in Vancouver in 2010 and hoped to build on that in Sochi, but acknowledged Saturday that Miller was the skier to beat.

“He’s been the best skier on this mountain,” Svidal said. “So now he looks like the favorite.”

In a sport where fractions of a second are vitally important, Miller was simply too slow. He finished in eighth place, over half a second slower than gold medal winner Matthias Mayer, who held off a talented field, including Svindal to claim the first victory of his career.

The treacherous Sochi course has been called one of the most difficult in Olympic history, with a variety of skiers crashing during practice. It became a test of managing breakneck speeds and a sheer vertical drop that few competitors were able to handle.

You can find the full results from the Men’s Downhill here, but these are the Top 10 standings from Sunday.

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