Bode Miller is an American Alpine skier who won six Olympic medals – more than any other American skier – and won the men’s world cup overall title in 2005 and 2008. Bode Miller is an American Alpine skier who won six Olympic medals – more than any other American skier – and won the men’s world cup overall title in 2005 and 2008.

Miller was born in the heart of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He grew up at the Cannon Mountain Ski Area. In a community that lives a simple life, he was raised in a house without electricity or plumbing on 450 acres of land. Bode was only two when he began sliding down his driveway with strap-on skis and a homemade snowboard. By age four, he was skiing almost every day that there was snow on the ground. At age eight, he started ski racing. And at age 14, he began attending Carrabassett Valley Academy, a ski academy in Sugarloaf, Maine.

Since then, Bode Miller has become the most successful American alpine ski racer of all time. He is considered one of the greatest World Cup racers of all time, with 33 race victories, eleven Olympic and world championship medals, and one of five men to win in all five disciplines (downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, combines), and one of two men to accomplish the feat in a single season. His career highlights include:

Double Silver Medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics
World Championships: In 2003, he became the first American to win two gold medals in a single World Championships. In the 2004-2005 season, he recorded six World Cup wins and took the overall title, and the super-G title, as well as two gold medals in the world championships.
Independent World Cup Champion (2007-2008): After leaving the U.S. Team, Miller captured his second World Cup overall title.
Olympic Triple (2010): After rejoining the U.S. team, Bode won his first Olympic gold in super combined at the Vancouver Games and took home a silver and bronze in other disciplines.
Miller became known for his fearless, unorthodox and fast skills. He stated that his basic goal as a skier was not to win medals but rather to ski “as fast as the natural universe will allow”. His personality and world-class ski racing skills made him stand out both on and off the ski hill.

He published his autobiography “Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun”, written with Jack McEnany, in 2005. Throughout his career, Miller has worked with many ski and apparel companies, such as K2, Atomic, Kjus, Nike, Head Alpine Equipment, Fischer and Rossignol. In 2015, he decided to join Bomber Ski with the goal of making the best skis in the world. He partnered with Aztech Mountain, a high-end sportswear maker. And has also exchanged his vast expertise for equity at bag maker, Esperos.

Bode founded the Turtle Ridge Foundation in 2005. Several years of helping work through the challenges his close family friend faced as a paraplegic, after a car crash, made it clear that a solution was needed on a larger scale. Since then, the Turtle Ridge Foundation has been impactful nation-wide with grants, events, and leadership on creating programs to assist youth sports and adaptive sports of all kinds.

In 2017, Bode Miller officially retired from competitive skiing to spend more time with his family, to act as an on-air ski racing analyst for NBC, and to focus on his new-found passion of horse training. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx