Fans and the media corrupt sport

Bode Miller in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.

“Sport is born clean and it would stay that way if it was the athletes who ran it for the pleasure of taking part, but then the fans and the media intervene and finish up by corrupting it with the pressure that they exercise.’’

— Bode Miller (born 1977), American Olympic and World Championship Gold Medalist and the most successful male U.S. alpine ski racer so far.

He was born in Easton, N.H. (population: 254) and grew up in Franconia, N.H., site of the famous old ski area at Cannon Mountain and what had been The Old Man of the Mountain and a home of Robert Frost.

The current Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway (completed in 1980), which rises to the 4,100-foot summit of Cannon Mountain. The first version (below) built in 1938, was the first passenger aerial tramway in North America.