Comments on: Sports: Bode Miller’s Road to Redemption http://drjimtaylor.com/2.0/sports/sports-bode-millers-road-to-redemption/ Inspire, Inform, Transform Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:19 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Dr. Jim Taylor http://drjimtaylor.com/2.0/sports/sports-bode-millers-road-to-redemption/#comment-116 Dr. Jim Taylor Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:32:31 +0000 http://drjimtaylor.com/blog/?p=364#comment-116 from an anonymous email commenter: I am watching the Olympics now, and he is my favorite U.S. athlete, precisely because Bode is just Bode. As you said, same guy, different terms, pretty much like the rest of us who are trying to cope with our daily lives. He made sense to me saying that he felt like his personality has been taken over by media hype in 2006 and consequently he lost his focus, not just in skiing but probably life as well. We are basically witnessing the same thing with Lindsey Vonn, who is traveling down the same road. True, she has a gold and a bronze, but has been stymied since, and this latest incident with Julia Mancuso (just the tip of the iceberg) is rather ironic. Now we'll get the same media hyping a new story, "Did Vonn fail the United States when it counted?" She should take responsibility for her part in the chilliness on the U.S. Ski Team. She chose to be poster girl for the Olympic hype, and now she's getting the downside. And who would have thought that Bode would be the role model of this Olympics? As I was telling my kids, I'd rather have him as a role model instead of Vonn, or, heavens forbid, Tiger Woods, whose clean image is now gone, and he has to come out reading somebody else's words about how sorry he is that his corporate sponsors won't support his lifestyle anymore. Anyway, I was looking for the kind of insightful article about Bode Miller, and you certainly provided it. Thank you so much! from an anonymous email commenter: I am watching the Olympics now, and he is my favorite U.S. athlete, precisely because Bode is just Bode. As you said, same guy, different terms, pretty much like the rest of us who are trying to cope with our daily lives. He made sense to me saying that he felt like his personality has been taken over by media hype in 2006 and consequently he lost his focus, not just in skiing but probably life as well. We are basically witnessing the same thing with Lindsey Vonn, who is traveling down the same road. True, she has a gold and a bronze, but has been stymied since, and this latest incident with Julia Mancuso (just the tip of the iceberg) is rather ironic. Now we’ll get the same media hyping a new story, “Did Vonn fail the United States when it counted?” She should take responsibility for her part in the chilliness on the U.S. Ski Team. She chose to be poster girl for the Olympic hype, and now she’s getting the downside. And who would have thought that Bode would be the role model of this Olympics? As I was telling my kids, I’d rather have him as a role model instead of Vonn, or, heavens forbid, Tiger Woods, whose clean image is now gone, and he has to come out reading somebody else’s words about how sorry he is that his corporate sponsors won’t support his lifestyle anymore.

Anyway, I was looking for the kind of insightful article about Bode Miller, and you certainly provided it. Thank you so much!

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