Bode Miller finally lets his emotions get involved

Reporting from Whistler, Canada — Bode Miller used to think the distractions that surrounded the Olympics were counter-productive.

The Games, at least during working hours, were all business.

But Miller, now 32, has taken a different approach for what could be his last Olympics. Miller, in fact, was very emotional after winning bronze in Monday’s downhill.

“I think that’s part of why I wanted to come back,” Miller said after the race.

“I wanted that feeling. With my experience and technological knowledge, now I wanted to let my feelings go and let myself be emotionally involved in the race.”

Miller looks for his fourth Olympic medal Friday in the men’s super giant slalom at Whistler Creekside.

Miller has posted only two top 10s in super G this season -- he has five career World Cup wins -- but his performance in downhill instantly makes him a medal threat. Miller missed gold in downhill by 0.9 of a second in the closest downhill finish in Olympic history.

“Nobody wants it more,” Miller said. “There’s nobody that pushes harder. It’s just a matter of managing those mistakes that inevitably are going to happen.”

Super G mixes the elements of downhill and giant slalom and wasn’t added to the Olympic program until 1988. Yet, it has become, arguably, the most exciting Alpine event after the downhill.

The super G in Italy four years ago was a thrilling contest pitting two of Alpine’s greats, with Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt winning the gold over Austria’s Hermann Maier. Both skiing giants retired after the Turin Games.

Friday’s super G appears wide open. Austria’s Michael Walchhofer is the World Cup leader in the event, followed by Norway’s Aksel-Lund Svindal, coming off a silver medal in Monday’s downhill.

The super G also marks the Olympic debut of Austrian Benjamin Raich, a gold medal winner in giant slalom and slalom four years ago.

America’s Ted Ligety, the defending Olympic champion in combined, got a big super G confidence boost when he finished second behind Walchhofer in December at Val d’Isere.

Ligety, though, took a free ski on the course Thursday and pronounced via Twitter that the hill was in horrible condition.

“It’s going to be a nasty race,” Ligety reported.

chris.dufresne @latimes.com