It was a good weekend for American alpine aces Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn on the 2007-08 Audi FIS World Cup—Miller because of the way he raced in Norway, and Vonn because she didn't race at all.
Miller, 30, podiumed three times in speed races on the 1994 Olympic courses at Kvitfjell, Norway and posted his 31st World Cup victory in Saturday's downhill on the Olympiabakken course. He led the whole way and posted his sixth win of the year.
Vonn kept her World Cup lead—the first time in 25 years that two Americans have led the World Cup at this point of the season—because two technical races in Germany were canceled due to bad weather.
With his 31st victory, the 6-2, 210-pound Miller jumped past Benjamin Raich of Austria and into sole possession of sixth place on the all-time World Cup men's victory list.
Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden leads with 86 wins, Hermann Maier of Austria has 53, Alberto Tomba of Italy 50, Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg 46, Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland 40, Miller 31, Raich 30 and Austria's Stephan Eberharter 29.
Of his 31 wins, the American renegade from Bretton Woods, N.H. and Carrabassett Valley Academy has nine GS wins plus seven in downhill, five in super giant slalom, five in slalom, and five in combined.
Miller was second in Friday's Kvitfjell downhill and second again in Sunday's super giant slalom.
He stretched his World Cup overall lead to 185 points over Didier Cuche of Switzerland. Miller has 1363 points and last year's third-place Cuche has 1178. Miller's total is 290 ahead of last year's overall runner-up and 2006 World Cup king Benjamin Raich of Austria (1073).
Miller, who has already clinched the season's crystal globe for winning the super combined, is also on the verge of passing World Cup downhill leader Cuche. After Kvitfjell Cuche has 584 points and Miller is five behind with 579 points.
U.S. speed head coach Chris Brigham said, "It was a hell of a weekend for Bode. He's skiing with so much confidence right now and has put himself in a great position going into the World Cup Finals. He wants that overall title and he wants the downhill title. Bormio is going to be pretty exciting."
Meanwhile, a storm code-named Emma lashed the northern fringes of the Alps and forced the cancellation of last weekend's World Cup women's giant slalom and slalom races at Zweisel, Germany. Winds gusted up to 125 miles per hour.
It meant overall leader Vonn remained 54 points ahead of technical specialist Nicole Hosp of Austria, the same margin the lanky American from Minnesota enjoyed entering the weekend. And that helped Vonn's chances of winning the overall.
U.S. Ski Team head women's coach Patrick Rimi said, "There was absolutely no chance to have the race with the wind and rain. It was the right decision. To tell you the truth, it's not such a bad call for Lindsey. She comes out of the weekend with the same lead on Hosp as she had going in, with only speed races left before the World Cup Finals.
"She's in a really good position."
Two-time Olympian Vonn has already clinched the 2007-08 downhill globe with an insurmountable 655-368 lead over defending DH queen Renate Goetschl of Austria.
Because of last weekend's canceled races in Germany that won't be made up, Vonn maintained her World Cup overall lead with 1103 points, 54 ahead of reigning World Cup overall queen Hosp (1049).
Only three Americans have won the World Cup overall title over the circuit's 41 years—Phil Mahre three times from 1981-83, Tamara McKinney 1983 and Bode Miller 2005.
Still to come: Men's GS/SL March 8-9 at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and women's DH/combined March 8-9 at Crans Montana, Switz.; and World Cup Big Finals (all disciplines) March 12-16 at Bormio, Italy.
Current men's and women's World Cup leaders and top Americans are listed:
Men's overall: 1—Bode Miller (Team America) 1363. 2—Didier Cuche (Switz.) 1178. 3—Benjamin Raich (Aust.) 1073 points. 7—Ted Ligety (U.S.) 662.
Men's downhill: 1—Didier Cuche 584. 2—Bode Miller 579. 3—Michael Walchhofer (Aust.) 407. 4—Marco Sullivan (U.S.) 278.
Men's slalom: 1—Jean-Baptiste Grange (Fra.) 462. 2—Mario Matt (Aust.) 405. 3—Manfred Moelgg (Italy) 391. 10—Ted Ligety 238.
Men's giant slalom: 1—Benjamin Raich 308. 2—Ted Ligety 285.
Men's super giant slalom: 1—Didier Cuche (Switz.) 340. 2—Christoph Gruber (Aust.) 251. 8—Bode Miller 189.
Men's combined: 1—Bode Miller 410. 2—Ivica Kostelic (Cro.) 256. 7—Ted Ligety 131.
Women's overall: 1—Lindsey Vonn (U.S.) 1103. 2—Nicole Hosp (Aust.) 1049 points. 3—Maria Riesch (Germ.) 981. 6—Julia Mancuso 846.
Women's downhill: 1—Lindsey Vonn 655. 2—Renate Goetschl (Aust.) 368. 3—Britt Janyk (Can.) 350. 7—Julia Mancuso 232.
Women's slalom: 1—Marlies Schild (Aust.) 540. 2—Nicole Hosp 465. 14—Resi Stiegler (U.S.) 111.
Women's giant slalom: 1—Denise Karbon (Italy) 560. 4—Julia Mancuso 253. 15—Lindsey Vonn 104.
Women's super giant slalom: 1—Maria Riesch (Germ.) 334. 2—Elisabeth Goergl (Aust.) 281. 7—Julia Mancuso 202. 11—Lindsey Vonn 182.
Women's combined: 1—Maria Riesch 180. 2—Lindsey Vonn 140. 3—Julia Mancuso 96.
Bode Miller looks to the scoreboard as he crosses the finish line with the lead Saturday, March 1 at Kvitfjell, Norway. He won the downhill and podiumed three times in three days. Photo by AFP/Getty Images
