Apples and oranges

WHISTLER, British Columbia – In their own ways, Bode Miller and Phil Mahre say their careers can’t and shouldn’t be compared.

“Did they even have TV back then?” Miller said when asked if he’d seen footage of Mahre.

Mahre was driving back to Yakima from Vancouver on Monday afternoon when he learned Miller had won a bronze in the downhill setting a U.S. Alpine standard with three Olympic medals.

“It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” Mahre said.

Miller and Mahre are right, of course, but since when has that stopped media and fans from comparing their sports heros?

No sooner had Miller won his bronze to go along with his two silvers from ’02 than the questions about his place in history began.

The answers were exactly what you’d expected considering they were coming from Miller’s teammates.

“He was already at the top and this solidifies it,” Steven Nyman said of Miller’s third medal.

Marco Sullivan added: “He is the best skier in U.S. history, for sure. I never got a chance to watch the Mahres ski that much, but in my generation he’s definitely the best U.S. skier.”

The numbers are quite similar.

Mahre won 27 World Cup races in eight seasons. Miller has won 32 in 13 seasons.

Mahre won three World Cup overall titles, Miller has two.

Mahre won seven World Cup discipline season titles. Miller has six.

Both have won the combined at Kitzbuehel (Austria), skiing’s Super Bowl.

“You can’t take anything away from him,” Mahre said of Miller. “There’s a lot to be said for what he’s accomplished and there’s a lot to be said for what he hasn’t accomplished.”

While Mahre’s results lack nothing, the precise reason he was the undisputed American king of the slopes before Miller came along, Miller lacks only Olympic gold.

“But I think he’ll have two by the end of the week,” said U.S. skier Andrew Weibrecht.

While number of wins, Olympic medals and world championships seem to tip the argument slightly in Miller’s favor, these numbers can be misleading.

Mahre competed in the 1970s and early ’80s when super-G wasn’t even a World Cup discipline.

He also competed on longer, straight-edged skis that made the sport more challenging.

“The athleticism was so different than it is now,” Miller said. “There was so much more you had to do physically with your body. Now the skis do the work. That was a really cool era to watch.”

When Mahre skied, the glamour event was slalom, he said, “because it is the most difficult.”