Bode Miller May Retire Before Olympics

Bode Miller, center, is unlikely to take another shot at the Olympics.

The American skier said in an interview with UniversalSports.com Wednesday that he's leaning toward retiring at the end of this season, but hasn't completely ruled out the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Miller is the defending overall World Cup champion and currently competing at the world championships in Val D'Isere.

"I've said it for five years and I haven't retired yet but in this particular case ... it's probably likely," Miller said in the interview. "It's just something that comes along for every athlete. ... I'm not decided one way or another. I just think it's unlikely that I would go. It could happen."

Miller did not win a medal at the 2006 Turin Games, and has not won a medal at a major championship since winning the super-G and downhill at the 2005 world championships in Italy.

Miller had a medal in his grasp in Monday's super-combi race, but straddled a gate in the slalom portion when just about all he needed to do was make it to the finish. He still has two events remaining, the giant slalom Friday and the slalom Sunday.

He's highly skeptical about competing at the next Olympics.

"I don't think there's anything so far that would convince me to go," Miller said. "You have to race with your heart, you have to race how you believe you should, you have to train how you believe you should, all those things. I think it would be a stretch to say there's something in my heart that's driving me to go to the Olympics again, besides the unique opportunity to extract a great performance from myself."

Miller's best performances in Turin were fifth in downhill and sixth in giant slalom. He made more headlines for his late-night partying than his skiing.

However, as Miller often points out, conditions don't always let the best skier win.

"You need the circumstances to come together for that to happen, for a truly amazing, unique performance to happen you do need the circumstances to conspire," he said. "That would be the reason to go. But it's a gamble, too. The likelihood of that happening is small and the likelihood of a lot of negativity and a lot of stuff that I just don't think needs to be combined with Olympic sport happening, that's just very high."

Still, Miller has not definitely made up his mind.

"I don't know. I'm not decided one way or another," he said. "I just think it's unlikely that I would go. It could happen. It's obviously possible. But knowing skiing and knowing the people and the organizations that are in place, I don't see anything conspiring on the horizon to make me believe it wouldn't be something negative and unproductive for myself and the sport and the Olympics."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.