Six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller said he will take at least one year off from Alpine skiing, according to BloodHorse.com, which also reported Miller bought a barn to continue his venture into horse racing.
Miller, 37 and the most decorated U.S. Olympic skier of all time, previously said on June 15 that it was unlikely he would race the full 2015-16 World Cup season, which starts in October, and agreed it was possible he would ski a partial schedule.
Miller crashed in the World Championships super-G on Feb. 5 (video here), underwent surgery to repair a severed right hamstring tendon and missed the rest of the season.
Miller finalized the purchase of a barn near Elkton, Md., on Tuesday, according to BloodHorse.com, which reported he “hopes to bring a new approach to training thoroughbreds.”
Miller is noted friends with trainer Bob Baffert, who won the Triple Crown this year with American Pharoah. Baffert named a son after Miller.
“That’s been my goal for the past five or six years,” Miller told BloodHorse.com of Baffert’s feat, the first since 1978. “Bob is a close friend of mine, and I couldn’t have been happier for him and [wife] Jill and the whole team really, but at the same time I was frustrated because I think we’re heading in that same direction. We want to reproduce that.”
Bode Miller on his favorite race, favorite skiers, ‘Grandpa Bode’ commercial
