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PARK CITY, Utah -- Despite his enormous success in the World Cup last season, gold medalist Ted Ligety still does not like the ski equipment regulations the International Ski Federation (FIS) imposed last year in an attempt to make the sport safer.

"I've been very vocal against the new regulations that have been put in place, for a variety of reasons," Ligety said at the Olympic media summit Monday. "The No. 1 reason is I don't think the safety question is really a valid question they were going to answer with these new skis. Also, I think it makes an unfair situation when a governing body makes rules that completely favor certain athletes and don't favor others.

"Also, it really affects the next generation of skiers coming up. This year, there will be 16-year-old skiers skiing on the same skis we did in the World Cup last year and they're hard for me to ski on a lot of times. That definitely does not help the development of the sport."

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Stanko Gruden/Agence Zoom/Getty ImagesTed Ligety believes the FIS should not be setting any regulation rules for skis.

The regulations for giant slalom increased the minimum length of the skis (from 185 to 195 cm), as well as their minimum turn radius (from 27 meters to 35 meters). Ironically, Ligety said those modifications favor his style of skiing, but he said he is upset because they hurt skiers with different styles.

"In giant slalom, they definitely favor me. The style of skier they favor is someone who arcs more of the turn and takes the turn deeper, and that's definitely something I do," Ligety said. "But you look at someone like Massimiliano Blardone. He was third in the GS standings the year before and he was way out there this year [13th]. He was a guy that would take a straighter line and chop off the top of his turn, then hit it hard and get some acceleration out of his turn. And that technique just doesn't work anymore.

"There are definitely guys who have had their careers hurt by the new skis."

Ligety blasted the FIS on his website, calling the governing body a "dictatorship" and insisting the rules will ruin the sport. Asked Monday what changes he would have made instead, Ligety said he would prefer there be no regulations.

"FIS has proven themselves to be wrong every time they make new ski regulations," he said. "Before they made the skis wider and that made the skis more aggressive and created more injuries and now they're making them narrower. They keep having all these ideas that they test very mildly and they don't work, and then a couple years later they go back. I think it would be better if they just stayed out of it and let the ski companies make the regulations. ...

"I don't think it's made it any safer. In a lot of ways, it's made it more dangerous because you have to really muscle the ski around and manipulate and twist on the ski."

AP Photo/Rick BowmerBode Miller is attempting to qualify for his fifth Winter Olympics. His first was in 1998.

PARK CITY, Utah -- Though he hasn't competed in more than a year and is the oldest male on the U.S. alpine ski team, Bode Miller didn't exactly mince words when asked Monday about his plans for the upcoming season.

"I'm going to kick ass," Miller said. "That's the gist of it."

The statement was greeted with chuckles from the assembled media at the Olympic media summit, but this was no joke. The man who hasn't competed since microfracture surgery on his left knee in spring of 2012 finds himself refreshed, refocused and reenergized entering what is his fifth and likely last Olympic campaign of his decorated career.

The 35-year-old Miller said Monday that he left his decision to retire entirely to the results of the surgery. If things went well, he planned on skiing again. If they didn't, then that was going to be it. With the surgery a success, he's back for what he said is likely his last competitive season.

"It's perishable being a ski racer," he said. "Until you're rotten and shriveled up, you keep going. I'm pretty shriveled up, but I'm not all the way rotten ... at least not yet."

During his recovery, he spent much of his time on the beaches of Southern California with his wife, Morgan Beck, a professional volleyball player, doing plyometric exercises designed to help slim and strengthen his 6-foot-2 frame. He said he's now 20 pounds lighter than when he last competed, allowing him to be even quicker than he once was.

And, most important, his repaired knee is finally pain-free. Despite being relatively conservative during a recent training session in Portillo, Chile, the early results were promising.

"I didn't take a lot of risk," he said. "One thing during an Olympic season is risk management. It's easy to make stupid mistakes in summer training. But in terms of structure, the knee is perfect. The ligaments are in great shape. The last few days were demanding on the body and I was ready."

He added, "My fitness will be a huge asset for me. It's something that was neglected the past few years, so my plan is to kick ass."

And while doing so, help those who are less fortunate. On Monday, the USOC announced that Miller will be the first athlete ambassador for a new "Gateway to Gold" program designed to introduce people with physical and visual disabilities to Paralympic sports and identify those with the possibility of competing for the U.S. Paralympic Team. It was Miller who sought out USOC CEO Scott Blackmun last year with the goal of improving opportunities in the Paralympic space. The new program will essentially take the core principles of Miller's Turtle Ridge Foundation to a broader audience.

"It's a philosophy that needs a broader audience. It needs more exposure," Miller said. "People get inspiration from watching people deal with these situations and do the incredible. I would not still be racing today had I not gone through that process. It really is something I benefitted from and is really important. I'm thrilled to be part of it and ready to help out."

AP Photo/Rick BowmerLolo Jones is vying for a spot on the U.S. women's bobsledding team for the Sochi Olympics.

PARK CITY, Utah -- For all the changes Lolo Jones has endured in her transformation from Olympic hurdler to bobsledder, perhaps nothing has proven more challenging than her quest to build a bigger, stronger, heavier body.

Last year, during her inaugural bobsled season, the 31-year-old struggled to put on weight. So you can imagine her excitement during a recent commercial shoot when she slipped into her Team USA bobsled suit only to have it rip down the middle of her torso. While many would have reacted with horror, Jones smiled.

"Yeah, that hasn't happened to me before," Jones admitted Monday at the U.S. Olympic media summit. "They had to sew me back in. It was crazy. I was like, 'Get me a scale.' I was happy."

Happy because the wardrobe malfunction meant Jones was inching closer to her target weight of 162 pounds that she hopes to reach in the lead-up to the Sochi Olympics. Jones, who weighed 135 pounds when she finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles in the 2012 London Games, struggled to eclipse 150 pounds last season.

After dropping down to 138 to run hurdles this past spring and summer, she's ecstatic that she's already up to 158.5 pounds before the 2013 bobsled season has even begun. (Her diet included plenty of bacon double cheeseburgers and consuming 9,000 calories per day.)

"As a track athlete, you're more like a greyhound dog," Jones said. "With bobsled, you're more Rottweiler or pit bull. At first, my legs were so thick. I felt like I had pregnant legs."

It's all in the name of Jones' longtime goal: winning an Olympic medal.

"When you're wearing that Team USA, it doesn't feel any different if you're in a bobsled uniform or a track uniform," she said. "You get the same chills. Well, maybe it's a bit colder [for bobsled]."

Jones is one of several American women who will be vying for a spot on the U.S. bobsled team. She finished second in her first career World Cup competition last November and was part of the U.S. team that won gold at last year's World Championships.

The U.S. team trials begin Oct. 12. Regardless of what happens there and whether or not she's selected for the U.S. team, the Iowa native said she has every intention of returning to track and field to hopefully compete in Rio in 2016. And, on Monday, she hinted that the bobsled might not be the end of her Winter Olympics dream.

"When I went out to bobsled, the skeleton coach said, 'You should really be a skelly athlete,'" Jones said. "'You wouldn't have to gain all the weight. You could go back and forth easier,' So, I hate to say this, but after the Winter Olympics, I kind of want to try skelly. Not serious. But I just want to go down and see what it's like."

AP Photo/Julie JacobsonThe U.S men's hockey team reached the gold-medal game in the past two Winter Olympics held on North American soil (2002 and 2010).

PARK CITY, Utah -- The United States men's hockey team has enjoyed a lot of success on North American ice.

The Americans won gold at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., and, as you might recall, upset the Soviets en route to the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. The team won silver in 2002 (Salt Lake City) and 2010 (Vancouver), losing to Canada each time.

Playing elsewhere has been the problem. The U.S. has never won gold outside its own country and has medaled outside of North America only once since 1956. Even with NHL players, the U.S. team was, shall we say it, underwhelming at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and the 2006 Olympics in Torino, finishing sixth and eighth.

Which does not exactly bode well for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

St. Louis Blues right winger David Backes, who was on the 2010 team, said Monday that the U.S. recently talked about this pattern and how to change it. He said playing on Europe's larger rinks and playing somewhere outside their comfort zone are the major issues. (All teams played on an NHL-sized rink in the Vancouver Games.)

"Collectively, they're the biggest challenges," he said at the Olympic media summit. "I know that's a politician's answer to the question, but I think that they're the difference between success on North American soil and not a lot of success on European soil. Those two things combine for a little bit of adversity before you've even dropped the puck.

"On top of that, the other guys are swinging the other way. [In Salt Lake and Vancouver], they were going from living in their comfort zone to coming over to North America and not being comfortable with our culture, our society, our food, whatever," Backes added. "Now they're back on European soil and are as comfortable as can be. That tilts the table a little, but preparing for that and being aware that it's going to happen and taking it in stride will be a big factor in whether we have the success we hope to have or whether we don't."

"We have to come to grips with that," said Nashville Predators GM David Poile, who is also serving as the general manager of the 2014 U.S. men's team. "People were very comfortable in Salt Lake and Vancouver. They had their families there. Socially, they were comfortable because they could go out after a game or on an off-day and go out to a restaurant. Sochi will have a totally different dynamic. Sochi is not really close to anything -- the city is 35-40 minutes away. It's going to be a different experience for all the athletes."

Adapting to the ice and a less physical game is also important, Poile said.

"There has to be some adjustments," he said. "Whether it's angles for goalies or what a defensemen does in going back and getting a puck or what position a forward plays, there have to be some changes. Maybe it just seems obvious, but it needs to be pointed out to the players and put into the strategy of the game."

PARK CITY, Utah -- Evan Lysacek's scintillating gold medal performance at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics had everything but a quadruple jump. Conventional wisdom said that would be the last time a champion could afford to do without the biggest trick. The sport was advancing inexorably, and even though there are still very few men who can land clean quads consistently in competition, there's no doubt the attempt will be necessary in Sochi.

Lysacek knew that, and he had included a quad toe loop in a short program run-through on Aug. 21. He took a violent spill and stayed off the ice for a month because of an abdominal tear. But the pain returned when he resumed training, and doctor-ordered imaging last week revealed a tear to his left labrum that seriously endangers Lysacek's chances of competing at all this Olympic season.

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AP Photo/Rick BowmerEvan Lysacek won the Olympic gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The 28-year-old Chicago-area native had already pulled out of a competition this month and Monday told reporters at the Olympic media summit that he would be forced to skip Skate America, the first Grand Prix event of the season and an important bellwether for Lysacek back in his heyday. (Jason Brown, who won silver at the 2013 world juniors, will take Lysacek's place in the lineup.)

Lysacek joked that his rehab "has all the makings of a gripping reality show -- constantly developing, new characters constantly entering into the list." But his demeanor was subdued. He called his return to training on ice "a recent development" and didn't delve into specifics, saying only that he is being cautious and following doctors' orders.

In order to compete at the Olympics, Lysacek must first log a minimum qualifying score of 25 points in the technical elements of the short program and 45 points in the free skate -- basically, the equivalent of breathing and staying upright -- at an international competition.

The U.S. national championships in Boston in January, where the team will be selected (results generally prevail, but there is some discretion), doesn't count in that equation. At the moment, Lysacek has no other Grand Prix assignment or invitation. He said he is working with the U.S. Figure Skating Association to find an event or events where he can meet the standard and shake off the rust.

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