Accordingly, after starring for five years in this, my annual autumn seance to predetermine the coming winter’s fastest ski racers, Miller is now historical, persona non grata, bounced from the party, off the “A” list, forget the Christmas card. In fact, I hope he retires before you read this and never again embarrasses the world of skiing and ski racing with his bent and twisted attitude.

Newsweek, America’s biggest newsweekly, put him on the cover of its pre-Olympic issue (along with about 20 other magazines), then offered this apologia to its readers on page 2 the week after the Olympics: “We put this jerk on our cover?”

Besides his Olympic stunts, Miller also abandoned the World Cup racing circuit not once but twice in 2006 to go golfing with his brother, once in the desert kingdom of Dubai. Rather than standing in the start hut of a World Cup race in the snowy Alps, the defending Overall World Cup Champion was on the first tee in the desert performing before a gallery of disinterested camels. I hope his sponsors mailed him cheques in the amount of $000,000 for those performances. And I also hope he shot 114.

Fortunately, my 2006 crystal ball saw this coming and I did not pick him to repeat as the best and fastest male ski racer in the world. Instead, I went with Austria’s Benjamin Raich, who performed clairvoyantly and captured the first Overall title of his brilliant career, not to mention a couple of gold medals in Italy while Miller was dissing in the discos. While Raich was chasing gold, silver and bronze in his chosen profession, Miller was chasing platinum (blondes) and amber (liquids) with tabloid headlines.

Although it’s possible he may rebound with a good season in 2007 and contend for his second Weltmeister after being identified as America’s biggest jerk, I’m going with Raich to repeat and don’t expect Miller to finish in the top five. Raich’s toughest competition in 2007 will likely come from his own teammates.

And I’m also going to go with a repeat in 2007 on the women’s side, which this space has now aced four years in a row. I’ve called Kostelic, Paerson, Paerson and Kostelic, which is exactly how it all unfolded over the last four years, so I’m now feeling fairly bulletproof with our female selections. Croatia’s Janica Kostelic is so good in all five disciplines she cannot be beaten by her contemporaries and only has to remain injury-free to collar her third title. In fact, if she can avoid the injury bug for the next four seasons, she will threaten Annemarie Möser- Proell’s World Cup record of six Welts, a record many thought would stand forever.

You have to feel for Paerson, who would now have four titles if Kostelic hadn’t come down the road. She finished 2nd in both of Kostelic’s winning seasons and it puts you in mind of her countryman, Ingemar Stenmark, who won three and finished 2nd all three years won by Washington’s Phil Mahre, the greatest-ever North American racer. Stenmark could beat everybody in the world except Mahre. Alas, it appears Paerson can beat everyone in the world except Kostelic.

Accordingly, after her incredibly courageous Olympic performance, I expect Kostelic’s stiffest competition in 2007 to come from American Lindsey Kildow, who captured as many skiing hearts as Miller broke in Italy. Her top-10 run after a bonecrushing crash in downhill training was the stuff of legend.

Ski fans and ski writers don’t ask much of the athletes they watch and follow—just show up for the races and do your best. Every conceivable kind of personality has entered and exited a World Cup start hut over the first 40 years of competition, but none have ever been labelled a public “jerk” by the international sporting community.

Miller gave ski racing a black eye in 2006, but the sport is bigger than the athletes and new names will come down the line in no time. The good news for Canadian ski fans is Miller will be long gone before the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympics, which will honour one of the greatest Canadians to ever wave the Maple Leaf.

Bode Miller isn’t man enough to ski on a racecourse named for Crazy Canuck Dave Murray.

Doug Sack on Bode Miller from Fall 2003 issue It's Miller Time