Bode Miller, the five-time Olympian and skiing star, lost custody of his nine month-old son in a court ruling Monday. The hearing marked the most recent round in an ongoing cross-country custody battle.

Bode Miller Loses Temporary Custody

A Manhattan Family Court granted custody of the child to his mother, Miller's ex Sara McKenna. The boy, Samuel Bode Miller McKenna, had been living with Miller and his wife, pro-volleyball champ Morgan Beck-Miller. Miller, 36, and McKenna, 27, dated briefly in 2012, after reportedly meeting online.

The parents have been fighting over primary physical custody of the child, who Miller renamed Nathaniel, in a complicated legal battle since McKenna's pregnancy. Miller, who lives in southern California, accused McKenna of moving from California to New York while pregnant in order to find a more sympathetic court system which might grant custody in favor of the mother. McKenna counters that she moved to New York in order to receive a free Ivy League education at a dream school. McKenna, a former U.S. Marine, attends Columbia University on the G.I. Bill.

Calls Sara McKenna 'Mama' In Court

After McKenna's move from the Golden State, Miller filed for temporary custody. New York City family court sided with Miller in May, chastising McKenna for leaving the West Coast prior to working out the details of co-parenting with Miller. Court Attorney Referee Fiordaliza Rodriguez of New York County Family Court sent the case back to California where a judge gave Miller and Beck-Miller custody of the baby boy. Miller has since traveled the world with his son and his wife.

McKenna's attorneys appealed Rodriguez's decision and on Nov. 14, a five-judge panel ruled that McKenna's rights had been violated. They also ruled that jurisdiction belongs in New York because the baby, born in New York City on Feb. 23, was a New York state resident. The decision returned the case to Rodriguez's courtroom, where the hearing was held on Monday.

The mother-son reunion during Monday's ruling resulted in tender moments in which the infant played with his mother's hair and called her "Mama."

Miller is currently on the World Cup tour and will compete in his fifth Olympics in Sochi in February. He remains hopeful that he will be able to bring his son to Russia. "He's little and won't probably remember too much, but from the picture he'll know he was there. It's a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity," Miller said, according to the New York Daily News.

Monday's ruling grants McKenna custody of the boy until the next court date on Dec. 9, which will include a court-appointed lawyer for the baby.

— Molly Trinkoff

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