Mahre won three times from 1981 to '83, and McKinney is the only American woman to win. But Miller is nothing like his predecessors.
His rebellious attitude -- he is threatening to start his own ski tour next season -- and make-or-break style -- he finished only one of eight slaloms this season, winning in Sestriere, Italy -- set him apart.
"I felt like I was geared to race. I did what I came to do," said Bode Miller, who became the first U.S. skier to win the overall World Cup title since 1983, when Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney both won.
(Eddy Risch -- Keystone Via AP)
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_____ 2004 Summer Olympics _____
• Look back at the Athens Games, highlighted by Michael Phelps's eight medals and marked by unfounded worries over terrorism.
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Raised in a New Hampshire home with no running water or electricity, Miller travels the World Cup circuit in a mobile home.
The overall was Miller's main goal all 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 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, he captured his only slalom victory of the season and joined Girardelli as the only male skiers to win races in all four Alpine disciplines in one winter.
Miller then hit a three-month winless streak in the World Cup, excluding his two gold medals at last month's world championships, which do not count in the World Cup standings.
The American's 400-point lead over Raich in December shrank to 52 points entering this week's World Cup finals.
With the pressure on, however, and the season growing shorter, Miller responded with three top performances. He finished second in Thursday's downhill, snapped his winless streak Friday by sharing a super giant slalom 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," Miller said. "I did what I came to do."
Miller began his career as a technical specialist excelling in slalom and giant slalom. This season he also became 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 the 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."
• SNOWBOARD: Philipp Schoch of Switzerland and Aprilia Hagglof of Sweden won parallel giant slalom races in a World Cup event in Sierra Nevada, Spain.
• CROSS-COUNTRY: Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia won the a World Cup 50-kilometer race in Oslo, while home favorite Marit Bjorgen triumphed in the women's 30K.
• NORDIC COMBINED: Magnus Moan of Norway won a World Cup event, beating newly crowned overall champion Hannu Manninen of Finland in the concluding 15-kilometer cross-country ski race in Oslo.
• BIATHLON: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen led Norway to victory in a 30-kilometer relay in Hochfilzen, Austria, its first relay gold medal at the world championships since 1967.
