Olympic double medalist Bode Miller collected his second gold medal of the 2003 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships Wednesday, tearing through a second run of giant slalom while Erik Schlopy – his roommate for four years in an Austrian farmhouse – tore out of 23rd place after the first run to collect the bronze medal. The top three skiers were just four-hundredths of a second apart.

With three races remaining, the U.S. Ski Team has an American record six medals and Miller established a record for U.S. men with his third medal of the championships; Billy Kidd double-medaled twice (1964, 1970) and Phil Mahre had two medals in 1980. Overall, it ties Miller with Picabo Street, who retired after last season, ending a career that included five Olympic and World Championships medals.

Miller, fourth after the first run when he was caught a little unaware by the grippy snow on Corviglia peak, had a two-run time of 2:45.93 with Hans Knauss of Austria taking the silver in 2:45.96, just one-hundredth ahead of Schlopy.

"I had to attack, to take all risks on that second run. It was so tough … I was completely tired at the bottom," Miller told the crowd of about 25,000 spectators who came to see if national hero Michael Von Gruenigen could defend his two from St. Anton, Austria, at the 2001 championships. He couldn't.

Schlopy, the Burke Mountain Academy grad, was sluggish on the first run and started eighth on the final, flip-30 run before about 25,000 sun-bathed spectators. He posted the fastest run until Miller, the Carrabassett Valley Academy product who was skiing 27th after being fourth in the first run, came down and pulled ahead by .04. (The two rented a farmhouse near Austria's Brenner Pass for four years to reduce travel weariness, and they share a different unit outside Innsbruck this season.)

Von Gruenigen, third in the first run, couldn't match either American – and Miller had a medal with two skiers left. Nor could Benjamin Raich of Austria, second in the first run – and Schlopy had a medal, too, with only one racer remaing…nor could Hans Knauss, another Austrian – who couldn't catch Miller but he edged Schlopy by .01 for the silver.

"I wasn't happy with my first run, so I decided to make up for it on the second run," Schlopy said. "That second run is my gold medal."

Miller, the combined champion and silver medalist (with Austrian Hermann Maier) in the super G on opening race day Feb. 2, said before the race he hoped to complete his medals collection, getting a bronze. "Having two Americans on the podium makes up for it," he told the crowd.

Asked at a press conference how things have fallen into place so nicely for him in St. Moritz, Miller just grinned and replied, "I don't know but it's been pretty good for me so far.

"I knew it was going to be a challenge and I actually – not to blow smoke in my own sails – I actually called these two guys [Knauss on his right, Schlopy on his left on the dais] as two of the guys I felt could be a real threat on this hill … I didn't realize it was going to take the kind of skiing it did today to win.

"I thought I skied a great first run and I was almost a second behind Hans; it was really a little bit disturbing to know that he was that much than me," Miller continued. "In the second run, I skied, I thought, unbelievable – and lost a second to Erik. So, it was a little disappointing in that aspect, but I couldn't be on the podium with two better guys….especially when I look at the results here [in his hand] and Hans is in the lead until the very last split, and then – just at the end – he decides not to reach his hand out all…the...way, and gives me my second gold medal."

The Americans beamed at the reality they were on the podium together.

"I said that before Hans had come down," Miller said. "The way Hans skied the first run, I felt pretty confident that he was going to be on the podium, with the win most likely; if not he would be there with both of us.

"I could have had any color medal – it would have been the most important medal that I've had at these championships or in my life just because, on the team, I've always been able to focus on my own goals and do my own thing. I do put a lot of energy into the team, help the other guys, just try to make it a good atmosphere, not only for myself to function but to see those guys achieve their potential.

"I've talked a lot over the last five years I'm usually one of the only guys on the team who's made the transition into racing from training. And the guys are beating me and skiing incredibly fast in training for five years and they just haven't done it in races. To have Erik come out and put down a run like that in the second run at World Championships, and have our first double podium…y'know, we've been talking about that for five years now and to have it happen today is just amazing," he said.

"That second run, that's my gold medal…and my gold medal is to be on the podium with Bode and with Hans – he's a good guy, too," Schlopy said.

"All season long,"Schlopy said, "almost every time he comes down it seems he's in first place, so I was just glad to be next to him…and my second run I proved to myself I can compete with Bode and the rest of the World Cup."

Schlopy, who left the U.S. Ski Team to race professionally for three seasons before returning in 1998 at 26, said kissing off the championship and just focusing on having the best run he could liberated him to lay down a run no one could match. "For me, I think the key to my second run was that I forgot the results and forgot about the medals and concentrated on what I can do. I skied for myself.

"When I came out of the gate, I wasn't thinking 'I've got to win by 1.55 seconds to get a bronze medal.' I wanted to go out and be in a way that I could leave the mountain today and be happy with the way I skied. It sort of freed my soul and I went out there and I was relaxed and I had a run that I've been capable of having for a long time.

"It opened up a door for me today of what's possible," he said.

Asked if he had any second thoughts about "sleep-walking" through the first run and attacking top to bottom on the second run, Schlopy said he was ignoring the first run and would stash the second run – "my gold medal," he called it – in his memory bank.

"I think I just should have gone to bed earlier and I would've been more awake in the first run. But, no, I'm not kicking myself – I mean, what a day! It was actually more exciting to come from 23rd to get a bronze medal. Four-hundredths is close, but that's the way ski racing goes and we have close races almost every week…"

Men's Head Coach Phil McNichol said it was an emotional race and as pleased as he was with another medal for Miller, the reality of two U.S. skiers on the podium only confirmed his gospel of "We can do it" in putting more than one American on any podium.

He added, "We have provided that [team] dynamic … I wouldn't have said it was a failure if we had just Bode on the podium today – it could've been the circumstance of ski racing, but to reconfirm and to give the guys who believe in the team, one of the other guys needed to come forward. And that's what happened today."

McNichol monitored the final run from the middle of the race. "I knew Erik's run was good and I was hoping we'd be in the parade. I obviously felt Bode was going to be on the podium if he didn't give it away, and it was obvious Erik put a really good run down, and it became apparent he was going to hold [with the lead, at least to the end], and then he was sixth!…

"It was emotional."

The men are off until Sunday when they'll run slalom in the final event of the championships of St. Moritz. The women race giant slalom Thursday with Sarah Schleper, Kristina Koznick, Julia Mancuso, and Kirsten Clark.

— Courtesy U.S. Ski Team