Sunday turned out to be a landmark day for American skiers at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Capturing bronze in the men’s super-G, Bode Miller was joined by fellow American, Andrew Weibrecht in a surprising finish to clutch the silver medal.
At the age of 36, Miller became the oldest skier in alpine history to win a medal. This is Miller’s sixth Olympic medal and fifth Olympic appearance at the Games according to ESPN.
After dismal in the downhill and super-combined earlier this week, Miller proved he was one of the top when he tied with Canadian, Jan Hudec for gold marking the sixth time in Olympic alpine history for a tie to occur for a metal.
The really surprising story however came when 28-year-old, Weibrecht of Lake Placid, N.Y., captured the silver. After previously talking about retirement after this season, Weibrecht was unsure whether or not he would get funding for the Olympic team as his results in the previous seasons had been very bad reported USA Today. After winning a bronze medal in the Vancouver Games, he had since only placed in the top 10 of one World Cup and suffered many injuries and surgeries. Sunday proved to be different however when Weibrecht he finished in 1.18.44, just three-tenths of s second behind the gold medalist, Kjetil Jansrud.
With four races left to run, the U.S. sky team hopes to improve their performance in the Games with the addition of the two medals. Prior to these, the U.S. had won only one bronze metal by Julia Mancuso in the super-combined.