Bode Miller finished eighth Sunday in the downhill ski event, trailing half a second behind gold medalist Matthias Mayer of Austria.
The five-time Olympic athlete's disappointment remained hidden from no one as he pulled to a stop at the base of the steep run, only to put his head in his hands. Meanwhile, wife and professional beach volleyball player Morgan Beck Miller pulled the hood of her jacket over her face.
Miller, the most decorated male American alpine ski racer in history, had every reason to believe he would leave the mountain with his sixth Olympic medal Sunday. And for a while, it looked like it would be gold.
As the race got underway, the 36-year-old had the lead as he flew down the course, whipping past flags and keeping low in his skis. Things began to change, however, about halfway down the mountainside when, according to The New York Times, he did something he had promised he wouldn't do.
"He unnecessarily chased an extra millisecond, slamming his head and shoulder into a gate panel to cut off a precious few feet of the plunging descent," the Times wrote.
The miscalculation cost him not just the gold, but the podium.
"He basically took the gate out," Sasha Rearick, the United States men's Alpine head coach, told the Times. "Sometimes it's faster; in that situation, it's not."
Miller blamed his time in part on the cloud cover, saying he couldn't ski as close to the edge as he wanted to due to a lack of visibility.
"Not to make excuses, but when the visibility goes bad, it affects me quite a bit," Miller told reporters.
He added: "Matthias is great that way. He doesn't really change when the visibility goes bad, and that was a big advantage today, because I had to change a lot from the training runs to today just not being able to see the snow up there."
