SESTRIERE, Italy - American Bode Miller was disqualified from the Alpine combined Tuesday for straddling a gate in the first slalom run, just when he seemed to have built a commanding lead for his first Olympic gold medal.

The disqualification opened the door for fellow American Ted Ligety.  The Utah native won gold following a pair of terrific slalom runs that helped him overcome his downhill run that put him in 32nd place.

“We looked at it enough times,” Hunt said. “We’re satisfied.”

Miller was nonchalant.

“Obviously it’s a drag but the downhill was good and I made it to the finish...that’s at least half the battle for me,” Miller told reporters.

“I’ve straddled probably more times than most people have finished the slalom,” he added at the bottom of the run.

Indeed, the often-reckless American failed to finish five of seven slaloms on the World Cup circuit this season.

“If it’s clear, it’s clear,” Miller said. “I don’t plan to get disappointed.”

Like a cowboy riding a wild horse, he was a sharp contrast to the smooth, swivel-hipped style of Raich in a classic U.S.-Austrian showdown on a cloud-shrouded evening in the Italian Alps.

About three-quarters of the way through the first of two evening slalom runs — on the 42nd of 56 gates — Miller pinned a red gate with his left ski and the post popped up between his feet.

“I came down and the run felt fine,” Miller said. “I had no idea I had straddled. ... I was in the recovery room already getting ready for the second run when I heard it on the radio and I looked at the replay.”

By his own assessment, Miller was not as wild as he usually is.

“I wasn’t so much conservative as just bad,” he said.

NBC VIDEO Misunderstood? Feb. 14: Skier Bode Miller, who always seems to be in the eye of the storm, talks to NBC's Brian Williams. Nightly News

Still, it might have been good enough had it not been for his mistake in the “flush,” when the skier comes out of a straight line of flags and makes a sharp turn.

“It’s a clear straddle,” McNichol said.

The large scoreboard at the foot of the hill showed several replays after his run, but Miller’s name remained atop the leaderboard for nearly a half-hour. That’s when an orange asterisk went up beside his name, and seconds later “.1. Bode Miller” was gone completely, replaced at the top with Raich.

Miller had seemed poised to become the first U.S. Alpine skier to win three Olympic medals. His time of 2 minutes, 23.68 seconds through the downhill and one slalom run was 97-hundredths of a second better than Raich’s — not an insurmountable lead, but one he could easily have held.

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All of a sudden, those numbers were meaningless.

Miller was the 2002 Olympic silver medalist in the event and the reigning World Cup circuit champion. Raich came into the competition the No. 1-ranked combined skier in the world and won a bronze at Salt Lake City four years ago.

A few hours earlier, Miller had charged down the downhill course with trademark abandon to take the lead while Raich struggled to finish 13th in that portion of the combined, 2:06 behind Miller.

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