Bode Miller: Big Sky, Montana

I'm Bode Miller. I'm now just a father and retired skier. I have a bunch of business things that take up time, but mostly it's just fatherhood, husband. As a professional skier, I won 33 World Cups. Six Olympic medals. Five World Championship medals. Four golds in World Championships and six World Cup globes.

I grew up in upstate New Hampshire in a small town called Easton. It's right next to Franconia. Easton, our actual town, has no store and no gas station. So we kind of consider ourselves part of Franconia, which really only has one street down the middle and one of each thing: one hardware store, one grocery store, two gas stations, one on either end of town. It’s a pretty small area in general. I grew up with very modest means and discovered my love for skiing at a young age.

I just recently moved my family to Big Sky, Montana to reconnect with my roots, recharge my soul, and raise my family in the mountains — just as I did back in New Hampshire.

My parents were really, besides the interpretations of the word, just hippies. They wanted to be in the woods. They liked the simpler things. They like gardening and dealing with the kids, and really just basic stuff. We had no TVs or any of that. It was just doing what had to get done for the day and enjoy time outside and time with each other.

My parents had built a cabin up in the woods on the side of a little river, and it had no electricity or running water. We had the river right next to us and an outhouse. It was just basically a minimalist approach. That's where I was born. I was born in that house and then grew up there for the first seven years of my life. I was at my grandparents camp and I skied most of the winter, but that was my home.

I liked skiing a lot right from the beginning. I was always pestering my parents to get rides up and go, and it was pretty obvious to them that I liked it. But then, when I was around seven years old, I started to become aware that you could ski professionally. That was around the time of the '84 Olympics. Bill Johnson, Phil Mahre and Steve Mahre did pretty well, and there was something impressive about that. I watched that on TV and my grandmother taped it. I watched those tapes over and over again. That was when I started to believe that I could maybe do it too.

During my career, I won 33 World Cups. Six Olympic medals. Five World Championship medals. Four golds in World Championships and six World Cup globes.

I am most proud of the Olympics in 2014. Not so much because of the results — I had one bronze — but the training runs I skied there in the downhill were some of the best skiing I've ever done — skiing that had never been done before. It’s always a special feeling, as an athlete, if you do something that you really, truly believe has never been done before. I was really pretty psyched about that. More so than anything else, it was just fun to be able to do something that I’d earned. I spent my entire life building that skillset.

For me, the most important aspect of my career was being authentic. I kind of stuck to my guns a bit, which might sound a little out there, but I'm really proud that I didn't waffle or deviate from what felt right to me. I really did stick to what I thought was right and that's something I'm proud of.

The mountains and nature inherently recharge me. My soul just feels comfortable here. I don't inherently feel comfortable in populous areas like cities or places like that. I don't mind it and I've adapted to it, but I feel most myself and most natural in this environment. So I guess to some degree that recharges me. I just feel pulled to the mountains. I feel like this is a happy place for me. It's my natural environment.

It became really clear that it was important for me to let my kids be in nature: to let them learn the way that I did and let them experience some of what nature can teach you that's outside of what a person can teach you. Being up in Big Sky and living close to nature and small towns, and the community and accountability that small towns bring are super important. I just want my kids to feel that freedom and relaxed approach of living that you find in a place like Big Sky.

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Mountain Vibes, Big Sky

Next Generation, Big Sky

Welcome, Bode

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