Skiing & Winter Sports

The apology came after the overall World Cup champion spoke to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association president and chief executive Bill Marolt. The USSA was swamped with angry phone calls from team donors and corporate sponsors after Miller said during a “60 Minutes” profile on CBS that it’s not easy “to ski when you’re wasted.”

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“The most important thing is that I wanted to come straight out and apologize to mostly my family, friends,” Miller said Thursday at a news conference at the Wengen Elementary School. “But also we have a lot of people who supported me along the way, through my team and even just family and friends who have supported me, who I think are subject to only what the media puts out in America.”

“And because of the way I made those comments in the ‘60 Minutes’ interview it caused a lot of confusion and pain for all those people and obviously that’s nothing I want to do so firstly I’d like to apologize to them,” he added.

Miller took no questions after his statement and has not commented on the possibility of leaving the U.S. team and competing on his own.

International Ski Federation president Gian Franco Kasper said he was surprised by Miller’s apology.

“But I’m happy,” Kasper told The Associated Press. “It’s a good thing and a clever move.”