Bode Miller became the first American in 22 years to win skiing's overall World Cup title Saturday.
Miller finished ahead of his only remaining challenger -- Benjamin Raich of Austria -- in the final giant slalom of the season and became the first non-European overall champion since Americans Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney won in 1983.
"It's been a bit embarrassing it's taken so long," Miller said. "It was a bit embarrassing because it was like a curse.
PHOTO: AFP
"The last four years I've had a chance to win an overall," added Miller, who was fourth twice and second in 2003.
Miller finished second in the giant slalom, 0.68 seconds behind Stephan Goergl of Austria, who won with a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 10.51 seconds. Raich came in third, 0.80 behind.
Raich's only chance to stay alive in the overall competition coming into the race was to win and hope that Miller finished outside the top 15.
Raich skied before Miller and posted the best time to that point. The Austrian's lead held for four more skiers until Miller ended the suspense by beating Raich.
With only today's slalom race remaining, Miller holds an insurmountable 204-point lead. Miller has 1,608 points to Raich's 1,404, with wins worth 100 points.
"It's done, it's over," Miller said.
Raich was left with the consolation prize of winning the season's World Cup giant slalom title on Saturday, finishing with a three-point edge over Miller, the defending champion in that category.
Raich also won the crystal globe awarded to the season's slalom winner.
"I had a good world championships and now I've got two globes in giant slalom and slalom, so I'm very happy," said Raich, who outperformed Miller at last month's world championships, gaining four medals -- two golds, a silver and a bronze -- to Miller's two golds.
"I was trying to win the GS title today, but Benni had an amazing second run and that's what made the separation," Miller said. "I wanted to win the GS obviously, but I won that one last year."
The overall was Miller's main goal this season.
Skiers put much greater stake in the overall title than Olympic and world championship gold medals because the standings are determined over the course of an entire season rather than just a single race.
Miller set up his victory with an extraordinary start to the season, winning six of the first 10 races. On Dec. 13 in Sestriere, Italy, he captured his only slalom victory of the season and joined Marc Girardelli as the only male skiers to win races in all four alpine disciplines in one winter.
Miller then went on a three-month winless streak in the World Cup -- excluding his two gold medals at the worlds, which do not count in the World Cup standings.
The American's 400-point lead over Raich in December shrunk to just 52 points entering this week's World Cup finals.
With the pressure on, however, and the season growing shorter, Miller responded with three top-notch performances. He finished second in Thursday's downhill, snapped his winless streak on Friday by sharing a super-G victory with teammate Daron Rahlves -- taking the World Cup super-G title in the process -- and then clinched the overall with another podium performance Saturday.
"I felt like I was geared to race. I did what I came to do," Miller said.
Miller began his career as a technical specialist excelling in slalom and giant slalom. This season he has also become one of the top speed skiers, winning for the first time in super-G and downhill. Miller's two golds at the worlds came in super-G and downhill.
"I was consistently top five all season except for the slalom," Miller said. "It's never been a technical problem. It's a matter of execution."
As an overall champion, Miller joins such legendary skiers as Jean-Claude Killy, Ingemar Stenmark, Girardelli, Pirmin Zurbriggen, Alberto Tomba, and Hermann Maier, the Austrian who won his fourth title last season.
Mahre won three times from 1981-83. McKinney is the only American woman to win. But Miller is nothing like his predecessors.
Sarah Schleper of the US posted her first career World Cup victory in the season's final slalom race Saturday, and Janica Kostelic finished second to close in on overall leader Anja Paerson.
Paerson finished in 10th place and now has 1,359 points in the overall World Cup standings, 35 points more than Kostelic with only Sunday's season-ending giant slalom still to come. Kostelic has 1,324 points.
"Today I was watching Anja and I could see she was just trying to score points because tomorrow is her big discipline," Kostelic said.
Paerson will be favored in the giant slalom, and a win would get her another 100 points. She will also be attempting to wrap up the GS title.
"For tomorrow, there are no tactics. It's full out because there are two globes at stake," Paerson said.
"I tried to go for the win today. The first run was so-so and the second one I tried to charge, but it was a very difficult second run," said Paerson, who was third after the first leg but had the third slowest second run.
"We both know it's a game. It's not life or death. We are skiers and we know what to do. It's not like we're enemies."
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