Did Bode Miller Delay Grieving His Brother’s Death?

When U.S. Olympic skier Bode Miller broke down on camera Sunday during an interview following his bronze-medal-winning run in the Super G, viewers decried the insensitivity of the probing reporter. A former Olympic ski medalist herself, correspondent Christin Cooper took the opportunity to ask about Miller’s recently deceased brother Chelone–after Miller brought it up. Cooper then asked Miller, with tears in his eyes, about a pre-race moment in which he seemed to be talking to someone as he stared into the sky. Miller became so overcome with emotion that he couldn’t finish the interview, moved to a nearby barrier, and dropped to his knees to compose himself. “You sometimes don’t realize how much you can contain that stuff until the dam breaks and then it’s just a real outpouring,” Miller told Matt Lauer the next day. Miller’s reaction highlighted one of the most challenging questions in grief research – do people experience delayed grief, and how long after can such sadness re-emerge to blindside those who have suffered loss? MORE:Bode Miller Defends Reporter Who Brought Him to Tears “Grief is always tidal. People have the capacity to delay that response but they don’t have the capacity to deny,” says Jackson Rainer, head of psychology at Valdosta State University and author of Life After Loss: Contemporary Grief Counseling and Therapy. And any strong emotion – whether joy, anger, frustration or sadness – can break the dam and send the emotions flooding through. That might have been case for Miller. One of the first skiers to compete, he watched medal-contender after medal-contender either skid off the course or finish behind him. Knowing how much his brother, Chelone, a promising snowboarder, wanted to compete in Sochi, Miller was already emotional when he arrived for the post-race interview on NBC. PHOTOS: Must-See Photos From Day 12 of the Sochi Olympics These waves may be more frequent and more intense immediately after the loss, as the first raw feelings of abandonment and bereavement start to emerge and those who have lost struggle to find ways of handling their overwhelming feelings. But there is