The Alpine race was one of the three sub-races of the Caucasian race. The term is not commonly used today, but was popular in the early 20th century.

The term "Alpine" (H. Alpinus) has historically been given to denote a physical type within the Caucasian race, first defined by William Z. Ripley (1899), but originally proposed by Vacher de Lapouge. It is equivilant to Joseph Deniker's "Occidental" or "Cevenole" subrace. In the early 20th century the Alpine physical type was popularised by numerous anthropologists, such as Thomas Griffith Taylor and Madison Grant, as well as in Soviet era anthropology. It however fell out of popularity by the 1950's, but reappeared in the literature of Sonia Mary Cole (1963) and Carleton Coon (1969). In more recent sources, a very small array of anthropologists accustomed with such usage, still use the term.

The Alpine race is mainly distinguished by its cranial measurements, such as high cephalic index. A typical Alpine skull is therefore regarded as brachycephalic ('broad-headed'). As well as being broad in the crania, this thickness appears generally elsewhere in the morphology of the Alpine, as Hans Günther describes:

Samuel Bode Miller (pronounced /ˈboʊdiː/; born October 12, 1977) is a World Cup alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and can therefore be considered the most successful American alpine ski racer. Miller is also considered one of the greatest World Cup racers of all time with 33 victories, and is one of five other elite members to win World Cup events in all five disciplines.

In November 2004, Miller became the fifth and so far last man to win World Cup races in all five disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, downhill, and combined − and today he is the only one with five or more victories in each discipline.

In 2008, Miller and Lindsey Vonn won the overall World Cup titles for the first U.S. sweep in 25 years.

He has won five medals in the Winter Olympics, the most of any U.S. skier − two silvers (giant slalom and combined) in Salt Lake City 2002, and a gold (super combined), a silver (Super G) and a bronze (downhill) in Vancouver 2010. Miller is one of five skiers who have won Olympic medals in four different disciplines, matching the feats of Kjetil André Aamodt and female racers Anja Pärson, Janica Kostelić, and Katja Seizinger.