Disappointing Finish for U.S. Favorites Bode Miller, Ted Ligety

Miller and Ligety each had a disappointing first run in Friday's super combined

Two American Alpine giants were unable to recover from disappointing starts to Friday's two-part super combined event, and failed to reach the podium.

Bode Miller, the defending Olympic champion, botched his downhill run on the soft and slushy Rosa Khutor course and ultimately finished 6th. This comes after a disappointing eight-place finish in Sunday's downhill race.  

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Turin gold medalist Ted Ligety, meanwhile, had a ragged slalom leg and finished in 12th.

Sandro Viletta of Switzerland stunned the favorites and won the Olympic super-combined title in a spring-like race.

Viletta finished in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 45.20 seconds.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia took the silver medal, 0.34 behind, and Christof Innerhofer of Italy took bronze, 0.47 behind.

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The medalists were determined by adding the times together from one downhill run and one slalom leg.

The temperature soared to 55 degrees Fahrenheit shortly before the start of the slalom leg, turning the snow to slush.

With organizers having moved the starting time of the downhill leg up by an hour, the course was still extremely soft. 

"They moved the start to minimize that and in a way they maximized that," Miller said. "If they start at 11 everyone has (bad) snow more or less. In hindsight you can make those calls."

Miller described the snow as "crystals, mushy stuff."

"It's not even hard to ski, it's just slow," he said. "But in the end another mistake cost me. You had to take maximum risk with that start position."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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