February 16th, 2010 Olympic Blog- Behind Bode's Bronze

If you noticed that Bode was only two hundredths from silver and just nine hundredths from gold in the Olympic downhill, maybe you thought, “Huh, so close to winning Olympic gold, that’s too bad.” But it’s not too bad. Not even close. There’s more to Bode’s bronze than meets the untrained eye.

You thought it was best-skier-wins? Most of the time. But not always. Who reaches the finish line fastest is a complex equation. This is the maddening yet beautiful essence of the ski racing. And it is one of the reasons why Olympic medals carry so much meaning. A medal not only represents an outstanding athletic performance, it also represents the magic of everything falling into place… On the right day, and in the right way.

Athletes train all their lives for an Olympic competition that’s over in what seems like a blink of an eye. And yesterday, everything fell into place for Swiss skier Didier Defago, who at the age of 32 is the oldest man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill. For him, everything fell into place at the right time, “Today everything was right. My technique was right, my line was right.”

But everything was “right” for Bode, too. He skied a near perfect race. He was aerodynamic, aggressive with his line, extremely smooth on his edges, and didn’t make any mistakes. So why was Didier on top of the podium when Bode was third?

Variables. Such influential ones, in fact, that Bode’s proximity to the gold reveals what a tremendous performance he actually gave.

Ski racing is highly reliant on finely tuned equipment and takes place outdoors in the uncontrollable elements. For these reasons, there are countless variables that factor into a racer’s final result completely independent of his athletic performance. We’re talking snow conditions, weather conditions, visibility, air temperature, snow temperature, ski wax, you name it. The variables are complex, but for today, we’ll just stick to visibility.

Bode ran bib number eight in yesterday’s downhill race, a relatively early start number. For the racers running in the top fifteen, the cloudy weather conditions were such that the light was extremely flat. When ski racers can’t see any definition in the snow surface—which is the case in flat light—things tend to catch them by surprise. Bumps knock the racers around more, and they are challenged to find the right body position for the respective pitch of the hill. This usually results in more tentative skiing, which tends to be slow.

Despite Bode’s limited ability to anticipate undulations in the terrain due to the flat light, he skied a balanced and solid race. After racer number fifteen, however, the sun started to peak through the clouds creating much improved visibility for the racers starting later in the field. It was during this improved window of visibility that Bode’s time was defeated. Racing bib number 16, Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal nabbed Bode by two hundredths. And two racers later, Defago came in nine hundredths ahead of Bode.

Not to say that Svindal and Defago didn’t each ski a good race. They both skied very well and they both capitalized on favorable conditions. That’s ski racing.

But in essence, Svindal and Defago skied a totally different race than Bode. Bode didn’t have the same luxury that they had, the luxury of actually seeing the bumps in the snow. Bumps that weren’t there in the training run but had solidified with the cold temperatures that finally arrived the night before. Yet Bode skied the course just as smoothly and aggressively as Svindal and Defago did. He stomped it. And he could probably barely see the ground.

Mother Nature set Bode up against some pretty major odds, yet Bode skied with the confidence and composure of the experienced athlete that he is. For him to be that competitive, despite the unfavorable conditions he was dealt, shows what an outstanding day he really had.

There’s a lot behind Bode’s bronze. It was a true athletic feat. And, like Defago, I’m sure he’ll find the day where everything, every variable, finally falls into place.

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