This just in from the U.S. Ski Team:

Bode Miller (Bretton Woods, NH) notched the 31st World Cup podium of his career Friday finishing second in the first of two downhills on the 1994 Olympic hill and extending his lead in the overall World Cup standings. Steven Nyman (Provo, UT) was 14th and Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA) crashed, but was uninjured. Italian Werner Heel won the race for his career first World Cup podium.

Miller finished a .10 off the victory as Heel posted a winning time of 1:45.73 on the Olympiabakken course. It was a rescheduled downhill cancelled earlier this month from Val d’Isere, France, site of the 2009 FIS Alpine World Championships.

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Covering the World Cup at Whistler last week I compared Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn, each the best in the world right now at what they do.

Vonn might be seven years younger, but Miller, 30, could learn a lot from her. Vonn is polite and engaging. Miller is brash and, well, imagine Barry Bonds on skis.

Chris Dufresne of the L.A. Times, who was also at the World Cup, had a nice piece on the duo today. Click here to check it out.

Vonn holds court with

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Are women ski jumpers being discriminated against? Here’s the IOC’s latest defense of it decision to not allow the sport in the 2010 games.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Thursday that allowing women ski jumpers into the 2010 Winter Olympics would dilute the medals given to others.
Rogge said there are only about 80 women ski jumpers in the world and the sport has not yet reached the IOC’s standard for being included in an Olympics.

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Lindsey Vonn finished sixth Sunday in the super combined (a super G run followed by slalom), the last event of the Whistler World Cup, to maintain her lead in the overall standings.

Nicole Hosp of Austria closed the gap a bit by finishing fourth. Vonn has 1,103 points for the season and Hosp has 1,049.

"My goal was to fight hard and not lose too much ground to Nicky and I think I did that," Vonn said.

American Julia Mancuso finished seventh. Germany’s Maria Riesch took first followed by Marlies Schild of Austria and Anja Paerson of

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Ski reporter Paul Robbins has passed away at the age of 68.

Here’s the release from the U.S. Ski Team.

Internationally recognized ski and travel journalist Paul Robbins, a wordsmith and historian for the U.S. Ski Team for 30 years, died Saturday at his home in Vermont. Robbins, whose wit, humor and vast knowledge was legendary, was 68. He died of an apparent heart attack while working on weekend news stories in his home.

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Before today’s World Cup race I headed up Blackcomb Mountain with colleagues from the L.A. Times and USA Today to ski the Blackcomb Glacier.

The scenery on the glacier and from the top of Blackcomb Mountain was definitely the highlight of the trip. A short hike is required to access the glacier but once you drop in the skiing is pretty intermediate.

Look for more on skiing the glacier this spring.

Julia Mancuso was second this morning in the Super G, the first event of the Super Combined, which will be the final event of the Whistler World Cup.

Mancuso is 0.42 seconds behind Germany’s Maria Riesch. Canada’s Emily Brydon is third.

Lindsey Vonn is tied for 10th 1.13 seconds behind Riesch.

Stacey Cook is 31st and Chelsea Marshall is 32nd.

Watch the video below and you’ll see why Crystal Mountain’s Scott Macartney is lucky to be alive.

We talked to Macartney about his recovery in a story that runs in tomorrow sports section.