American skier Bode Miller has blamed the downhill course in Sochi for failing to make the podium in the men's event at the Winter Olympics.

The 36-year-old, who wore the No. 15 bib during the race, finished eighth.

"Everyone in the middle section of the course was losing five, six tenths of a second, even more in some cases," the Colorado Daily quotes him as saying. "Twenty minutes of time (in the start order), or half an hour of time, makes a massive difference in snow conditions.

"I didn't really make any mistakes in the middle and bottom of the course, and lost a ton of time. The training runs were blue bird, perfect visibility and hard snow. That's the perfect conditions to see who's the best racer.

"[On Sunday] the visibility went away, temperatures are warmer, the course breaks down a little bit. High humidity in that middle [section], where it's all ice, the high humidity brings the water out. The snow just gets slower."

Matthias Mayer of Austria won the gold medal.