The Northcaucasian type is considered as a branch of the Balkans-Caucasian race and is similar with Alpine and Dinaric races.

"We have more Alpine riders and more Alpine races because it's pretty hard to organize a halfpipe event," Kosir, 29, said.

Like Madison Grant (see The Passing of the Great Race), Stoddard divided the white race into three main divisions: Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean.

In his view Dinarics were a specific type that arose from ancient mixes of the Mediterranean race and Alpine race.

Wednesday he finished second in a two-man final sprint and beat on his handlebars in frustration, Thursday he finished first after a solo breakaway and Friday he overwhelmed the field in an Alpine race from Cluses to Morzine-Avoriaz.

According to Grant, the "Alpine race", shorter in stature, darker in colouring, with a rounder head, predominated in Central and Eastern Europe through to Turkey and the Eurasian steppes of Central Asia and Southern Russia.

The theories of race developed in the same period identified the Germanic peoples of the Migration period as members of a Nordic race expanding at the expense of an Alpine race native to Central and Eastern Europe.

Furthermore, he divided the so-called "Alpine race" into four other subgroups: those in western Europe, the "Dinarics" in eastern Europe, "Armenoids" in Southwest Asia and "Turanids" in Central Asia.

He claimed that the "Mediterranean race" arrived in Europe during Mesolithic times, while the "Alpine race" would have arrived from eastern Europe across Switzerland shortly after the Mediterranean race, but still in Mesolithic times.

Granted, there are six Alpine races remaining, and Miller and his teammate Kristina Koznick are considered top medal candidates in two of the events: the men's and women's slalom.