Six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller will not race at the World Cup stop in Wengen, Switzerland, this weekend, pulling out because he’s not ready to go following November back surgery, according to The Associated Press.
“There’s a lot of risk involved,” Miller, 37, said after a training run in Wengen on Thursday, before the decision to pull out was made. “I also know this hill pretty well. If you’re not physically ready for it, it can damage you.”
Miller said he’s “definitely not in race shape,” according to the AP.
“It was difficult,” U.S. coach Sasha Rearick said of the decision, according to the AP. “He’s a competitor, he wants to race and go out and charge down the mountain.”
Miller hoped to race next week in Kitzbuehel, Austria, at the famed Hahnenkamm downhill and at the World Championships in Vail/Beaver Creek, Colo., in the first two weeks of February.
