Winter Olympics 2010: Bode Miller denied gold medal by Aksel Lund Svindal

By Telegraph staff Published: 11:16PM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Miller"s not gold: Aksel Lund Svindal denied Bode Miller a gold medal in a crash-strewn super-G on Friday night Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Miller, who was 11th out of the start hut on a bright and crisp morning, had to settle for the third silver of his career to become the first US skier to win four Alpine Olympic medals.

Team-mate Andrew Weibrecht, who had started third, was a surprise bronze medallist.

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The gold was Svindals second medal in a week after the overall World Cup champion took silver in Mondays opening downhill ahead of third-placed Miller.

The Norwegian started 19th, with Millers time of 1:30.62 looking good for gold until then, and won by 0.28sec.

The race was repeatedly interrupted by falls, with Swedens Patrik Jaerbyn taken to hospital after the heaviest crash.

"It was good but its hard to talk about perfect," Svindal said, adding that he felt he had been chasing the game this season after injury and illness.

"I made one mistake. I heard Bode was leading and Weibrecht was in third and those guys dont slow down they go hard.

"It shows you just have to attack. Im lucky I already have silver so it can only get better, you just have to have fun, enjoy the race, always attack.

"I prepared well. Im in top form and am just enjoying it."

It was the US teams fifth and sixth alpine skiing medals of the Games, with Lindsey Vonn having also won the womens downhill and Julia Mancuso claiming double silver in the downhill and super-combined events.

"The times were unbelievably close together and thats unusual," said Miller, who wore downhill skis for the race.

"Its really unusual to be just on the very front side of six guys all within one 10th of a second."