Bode Miller reinvents legacy in Vancouver

Sports Illustrated's Peter King refers to the period in the middle of Kurt Warner's NFL career as a "donut hole." In between taking two different teams to their first Super Bowls, and winning one of them, Warner suffered though injuries and took turns backing up highly drafted quarterbacks because of his play.

If coming on and off the bench for five seasons qualifies as a "donut hole," then "black hole" must be used to describe the gap between alpine skier Bode Miller's Olympic career. Miller earned a pair of silvers in Salt Lake City in 2002. In 2006 at Turin, Miller was the poster boy for the games and went a disappointing 0-5. Miller has already won a medal of each color in Vancouver and still has two races left.

King, a football hall of fame voter, thinks a player's career should be judged after time has passed on his playing days, not at the time of his retirement. It will be interesting to see how Miller's career is judged long after he has skied his final run in competition.

His career will almost certainly be remembered in two ways.

For those who think Olympic athletes take their equipment out of the closest once every four years and show up to compete (which may or may not actually be the case for curling), he'll be remembered for redeeming himself in '10 after establishing a reputation for being an Olympian partier in Turin. They will wonder if by throwing away the 2006 Olympics if Miller threw away his chance to leave Canada with more medals than any other American winter athlete (with seven, speed skater Apolo Ohno will return to the states with that distinction).

For those who are fans of alpine skiing, Miller will be remembered as the greatest American skier of all time, the winner of 32 World Cup Victories and two overall championships. His fearless, win-big-or-go-home style of racing will define his career and to his fans, he lived life the same off the mountain as he did on it. They know when Miller was at his best, he was better than anyone else in the world.

To his fans, his Olympic medals only add to his greatness. To the fans that watch him ski as often as they get the chance to vote for a president, the medals will define his career. Unlike Warner, Miller didn't have the chance to seek redemption every year. But like Warner, Miller took advantage of the second act of his career and made the most of it, which is fortunate because in becoming the most decorated US Olympian skier, he removed the disappoint associated with his name by the general American public. This was no small task for an Olympian in a country where more people follow professional wrestling than winter sports.