Bode crashes out in giant slalom

WHISTLER, British Columbia - Carlo Janka of Switzerland added the Olympic gold medal to his world championship in giant slalom yesterday, while Bode Miller failed to finish in his bid for a record fourth men's Alpine medal.

The 23-year-old Janka led after the first run and had a combined two-leg time of 2 minutes, 37.83 seconds.

Miller almost crashed in the top half of the course on the first run and then couldn't correct his line coming out of a righthand gate in the second half.

"I'm taking more risk than everyone else. That's partly why I'm able to get medals," Miller said. "I did a good job today, too. I was right there. I was right on the edge."

U.S. men's head coach Sasha Rearick said Miller "was skiing with passion" but paid the price when he tried to make up time.

"Bode skied great up top and then went down on his hip, made a recovery like only Bode can but came in late to the next panel and hooked a gate with his hand," Rearick said. "He then made another spectacular recovery and went straight back into hammering the line."

The 32-year-old Miller won gold in the super-combined, silver in super-G and bronze in downhill, and was trying to become the first Alpine skier to win four medals in the same Olympics. His last chance will be in the slalom scheduled for Saturday.

The U.S. team finished off the podium for the first time in Alpine racing at Whistler, after getting an American-record eight medals from the first six events.

Pre-race favorite Ted Ligety, who leads the World Cup GS standings, was ninth, 1.28 seconds back. "It's disappointing not to keep the streak going," he said.

For Janka it was a special day. "I was a little bit nervous between the runs," he said. "I had a great second run without mistakes."

Norway took the silver and bronze medals. Kjetil Jansrud jumped from 11th after the first run to take silver, 0.39 seconds back, and Aksel Lund Svindal was 0.61 back for bronze, matching Miller's three-medal tally at the Vancouver Games. Svindal won the super-G and was second in downhill.

Austria's "Wunderteam" was shut out of the men's medals for the fourth straight race at these games, settling for the 4-5-6 finishers in Marcel Hirscher, Romed Baumann and Benjamin Raich.

Neighbor and big rival Switzerland now has two Alpine golds; Didier Defago won the downhill a week earlier.

"We have not very many medals, but we have a lot in gold," said Janka, who is known as "The Iceman" for his cool emotions, and his celebration Tuesday was typically understated.