Miller, on a much tamer course, competing in the 2010 downhill in Vancouver.(Kevin Pedraja/Wikimedia Commons)

He can at least be thankful, however, that he came out unscathed on a course that the American told BBC Sport “If you are not totally focused and paying attention, this course can kill you.”

After watching American teammate Marco Sullivan narrowly avoid a horrible crash in the final training session Bode was shaken.

“You saw Marco today. It doesn’t look like it, it’s an innocuous place and there’s nothing there, but he almost killed himself. If that crash doesn’t go just the way it went, he goes flying through B nets going 75 mph straight into the trees” he told BBC Sport.

SEE ALSO: Bode Miller's Final Olympics

Though no one was seriously injured in the Men’s Downhill or the downhill portion of the Women’s Super Combined, two downhill events remain, and if conditions worsen the chances of dangerous falls could increase dramatically. 

Graham Bell, a BBC correspondent and retired World Cup racer told the BBC, “It’s one of the toughest olympic downhill runs I’ve skied. I can’t think of any tougher. I’d rather do a camera run down Kitzbuhel again that have to do that again.”

Without a doubt the course has made for exciting viewing so far, as even the slights slip by the racers at 85 mph looks as though it might spell a near fatal crash.

Couple that with the somewhat limited protection provided on the Sochi course, where the number of B nets used seems fewer than a normal downhill, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for thrilling, edge of your seat competition.

At what point, however, does the risk to the competitors become so great that changes have to be made? Let’s hope that a terrible injury doesn’t happen first. 

Read the full article on the BBC.

Reach Supervising Executive Producer Christopher Coppock by email.