ST. MORITZ, Switzerland, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The World Alpine Skiing Championships resume Thursday with the men's combined, where American Bode Miller, if he can finish the competition, has a good chance of claiming the gold medal.
Miller has become one of the sport's leading figures as he battles Austrian Stephan Eberharter for the overall World Cup title and he will seek his first major championship Thursday.
His chief challengers will be Norwegians Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus, long-time veterans of the World Cup and Olympic stages.
Aamodt won two gold medals at last year's Olympics and finished fifth last week in the men's super-G -- the first event contested at the two-week championships. Miller tied for second in that race behind Eberharter.
"Combined is a very difficult event, you need to be focused all day," Aamodt said. "I'm confident I can get a medal (in the combined), but my overall goal is gold in the downhill."
Miller is the first American to have a chance at the overall World Cup crown since Phil Mahre two decades ago.
Miller is known for his aggressive style that usually has him either challenging for victory or skidding off the course. This year, however, he has been finishing with more consistency.
"Gold would be great," Miller said. "I like combined the most, gold would be great but you have to make three solid runs to get on the podium."
Only two of the 12 events have been run thus far and of the six medals awarded, three have gone to Austria and three to the United States. Americans Kirsten Clark and Jonna Mendes were a surprising second and third in the women's super-G on Monday.
In other championship news Wednesday, the Austrian team announced that Hermann Maier would compete in the downhill.
Maier has recently returned to the slopes after recovering from a motorcycle accident that almost cost him a leg. Maier won a World Cup super-G last month in a surprising return to action, but a poor downhill training run left his status for that race in doubt.
He was the 25th fastest skier in Wednesday's training, which took place in poor visibility and in a light snowfall.
