Vancouver Olympics poster girl Lindsey Vonn gets down to business this weekend when the World Cup ski season opens on an Austrian glacier.

Bode Miller, meanwhile, is still tuning up after taking off the end of last season and the entire summer before rejoining the U.S. Ski Team.

With Austrian great Hermann Maier announcing his retirement last week, Vonn and defending men’s overall winner Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway will be the center of attention for the giant slalom races in Soelden.

It won’t be much different from the attention Vonn has received all summer in the buildup to February’s Winter Games, when the two-time defending overall World Cup winner completed a full schedule of extracurricular activities.

In the last month alone, Vonn walked the red carpet at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, was featured on NBC’s “Today” show in New York and threw out the first pitch before a Cubs game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

“She’s definitely busy, but they’re doing a pretty good job of managing it,” U.S. women’s head coach Jim Tracy said, adding with a hint of regret that the attention has followed Vonn to a preseason training camp in Austria.

“It would be nice to see some of that stuff happen maybe while she’s home. But it is what it is. When you’re in the position that she’s at, these are the things that kind of have to happen.”

Miller was in this position four years ago when he entered the Turin Games as the defending overall World Cup winner, but the free-spirited New Hampshire native made more headlines for his late-night partying at those Olympics than his skiing.

Miller trained and raced on his own the past two seasons but announced last month that he was rejoining the U.S. team.

One of the main reasons Miller left the team was because he wasn’t allowed to sleep in his personal motor home the night before races, but men’s head coach Sasha Rearick appears to have loosened those rules now.

“If Bode needs a motor home to perform, I’m all for it,” Rearick said. “I have no issue. As long as it’s done professionally and it helps him perform at a high level. If he wants to spend the money to do it he can do it, by all means. But he’s got to continue staying 100 percent effort every single day and he’s got to be a positive teammate.

“Those are things that are important. Whether he stays in a mobile home or not to me doesn’t matter.”

Having only begun training on snow last week, Miller will skip Soelden and is aiming to start the season in Levi, Finland, on Nov. 15.

Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety is back in form after injuring his right knee at the U.S. championships at the end of last season.

“It feels pretty much fully 100 percent now,” said Ligety, who finished second and third in Soelden the past two seasons. “It’s always been a really good hill for me, and I’m excited to race. It’s been a long summer.”

Another Olympic champion, Julia Mancuso, is also 100 percent after a disappointing year due to hip and back problems.

“So far so good, let’s put it that way,” Tracy said. “She’s healthy, she’s happy and we’re in a way better place this year than the same time last year.”

Tracy went so far as to say Mancuso could even get back in the hunt for the overall World Cup title. The Californian finished in the top 10 for four straight years — and flirted with the title when she finished third in 2006-07 — then dropped to 27th last season.

“There’s no pressure there, but if she stays healthy then she’s done it before,” the coach said. “She was in the mix a few years ago so there’s no reason why she can’t do it now.”

Still, Vonn will be the clear favorite for a third consecutive title, having also won gold medals in downhill and super-G at last season’s world championships.

But the Minnesota native will have her challenges, such as balancing her focus between the World Cup and the Olympics, and a switch in ski brands — from Rossignol to Head.

“She’s on a mission, but it’s one day at a time. She knows it. While she’s excited for sure about the Olympics, there’s a lot before that. And that is all important stuff,” Tracy said.

“This is a new season with new equipment, a new service guy. So she’s got some things to work on.”

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