American Bode Miller had a blistering final slalom run, but it wasn't enough to surpass Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt for the gold medal in the men's combined here Wednesday. Austrian Benjamin Raich took the bronze.

This is the first time in Olympic history an American has medaled in the combined event of downhill and slalom.

It was a long day for the racers, who skied a downhill and two slalom runs at Snowbasin, the first time that all three runs of the combined were staged on the same day. But Miller held up particularly well after a miraculous 15th-place finish in downhill that shouldn't have been a finish at all.

Over halfway through the perilous course, Miller "booted out" his uphill ski, momentarily falling onto his left hip when he lost edge contact with the snow. He somehow managed to pull his ski back under him and ride out the remainder of the course without crashing or re-injuring the left ACL he had surgically repaired after shredding it less than a year ago.

After a mediocre first run in the slalom, Miller slashed down the final run in 49.73 seconds for the fastest time of the day. Still, his combined time of 3 minutes, 17.84 seconds was not enough to catch Aamodt's 3:17.56.

"It was a great race today," Miller said. "If you give a guy like Aamodt a chance, he's going to win the gold. So, I gave him a chance today, and he won the gold. But it was a great race and two tenths of a second is not much time. So it could have gone either way."

The combined victory gave Aamodt his sixth Olympic medal, a record for an alpine skier. He surpassed the mark of five shared by Italian Alberto Tomba, Vreni Schneider of Switzerland and Katja Seizinger of Germany.

This was Aamodt's second Olympic gold, added to his super-G victory in Albertville in 1992. He also has two silvers and two bronze, nearly collecting another medal in the men's downhill race at Snowbasin earlier in the week, where he placed fourth. It is the first Olympic medal for both Miller and Raich.

"I really wanted this gold medal, and I did it, and it makes me very happy," Aamodt said.

Aamodt won the downhill portion of the combined by .18 seconds over teammate Lasse Kjus, winner of the 1998 Olympic combined gold and silver medal winner in the 2002 downhill. Kjus, a burly speed specialist, struggled on his downhill run, making several glaring mistakes that he could not overcome on the technical portion of the event, dropping him to fourth overall.

"It was a difficult course," Kjus said. "I tried to go faster than the first run. I was way too slow on the first run. I made some mistakes right here at the bottom."

Miller, a gate racer who seldom competes in downhill, was a full 2.44 seconds behind Aamodt in the downhill and could do no better than a tie of the Norwegian's time in the first slalom run, putting on the pressure for his last attempt. He ripped the run 1.18 seconds faster than Raich, who had the second-fastest time.

"I think the first run he made some mistakes, tactical mistakes going over that first break over and he knew that he could ski well - technically and tactically well - and that's what he did the second run," said Miller's coach, Jesse Hunt. "The course was very turny. It was a very difficult course and he was right on the timing of the course. It was a super run, incredible run."

— Scott Willoughby, MountainZone.com Correspondent