Bode Miller wins bronze medal in the men's Super G

SOCHI, Russia – This time, there was no question Bode Miller cared about his Olympic performance.

Eight years after going 0-for-5 at the Turin Olympics and bragging about how much fun he had at the local bars, a wiser and more humble Miller wept at the finish line Sunday after sharing a bronze medal in the men's super G behind his U.S. teammate, surprise silver medalist Andrew Weibrecht.

At 36, Miller became the oldest Alpine medalist in Olympic history. But it wasn't the milestone that had him choked up. The weight of the past year finally got to him, particularly his battle back from left knee surgery and the premature death of 29-year-old snowboarding brother Chelone "Chilly" in April 2013 of an apparent seizure.

"I've been to a lot of major championships and Olympics and this one was a little different, coming off an injury that could have been the end of my career and I was ready for that," Miller said. "I would have walked away happy and moved on. But my knee came back. When you go through that, you have time to reflect and look forward, and I wanted to come in here and race in a way I'd be proud of. It's been hard the first few races [eighth in downhill, sixth in super combined].

"Compound that with losing my brother; that was really hard and just attached emotion to it because he wanted to come to these Games. I felt like that was all connected and raw and emotional for me, and in the finish it all just kind of came out."

Weibrecht, who had four surgeries in the past four years and wasn't sure he'd even make the Sochi team, was also emotional upon realizing he had won the silver. He is making a habit of blindsiding his Olympic competition. Four years ago, the 28-year-old Lake Placid. N.Y., native came out of nowhere to win the super G bronze medal behind silver medalist Miller at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

This one was an even bigger shock.

Weibrecht had only one top-10 finish in 95 World Cup races the past four years, and never won a medal. He worried he'd lose funding from the U.S. Ski Federation. Then, when he found out he'd be starting No. 29 on Sunday, he figured the snow would have deteriorated by then and he was "bummed."

But once again, he saved his best for the Olympics. Nicknamed "War Horse," Weibrecht charged down the mountain, ignoring his surgically repaired shoulder and ankles to finish three-tenths of a second behind gold medalist Kjetil Jansrud of Norway and two-tenths ahead of Miller and Jan Hudec, whose bronze is Canada's first Alpine medal in 20 years.

"This is probably the most emotional day of ski racing that I've had," Weibrecht said. "It's been a pretty difficult four years, and it's one of those things where you can only be beat down so many times before you start to really look at what you're doing. I didn't know how many beat-downs I could take."

It was a big day for the U.S. ski team, which was facing criticism after just one bronze medal in the first five Alpine events (Julia Mancuso in super combined). Weibrecht and Miller may energize the team heading in to the technical events, where Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin are gold medal favorites.