Picabo Street

Picabo Street
— Alpine skier —
Disciplines Downhill, Super-G, Combined
Born (1971-04-03) April 3, 1971
Triumph, Idaho, U.S.
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1]
World Cup debut December 6, 1992
(age 21)
Retired February 2002 (age 30)
Olympics
Teams 3 – (1994, 1998, 2002)
Medals 2 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 2 – (1993, 1996)
Medals 3 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 8 – (1993-2002)
(injured 1999, 2000)
Wins 9 – (9 DH)
Podiums 17 – (15 DH, 2 SG)
Overall titles 0 – (5th, 1995)
Discipline titles 2 – (DH: 1995, 1996)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1998 Nagano Super-G
1994 Lillehammer Downhill
World Championships
1996 Sierra Nevada Downhill
1993 Morioka Combined
1996 Sierra Nevada Super-G

Picabo Street (/ˈpiːkəbuː/; born April 3, 1971) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She won the super G at the 1998 Winter Olympics and the downhill at the 1996 World Championships, along with three other Olympic and World Championship medals. Street also won World Cup downhill season titles in 1995 and 1996, the first American woman to do so, along with nine World Cup downhill race wins. Street was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2004.

Early life

Born at home in Triumph, Idaho, Street's parents are Dee (a music teacher) and Roland "Stubby" Street (a stonemason). Her brother Roland, Jr. is one year older. Her parents decided to let Picabo choose her own name when she was old enough, so for the first two years of her life she was called "baby girl" or "little girl". At age 3 she was required to have a name in order to get a passport. She was named after the nearby village of Picabo.[2] She was raised on a small farm in Triumph, several miles southeast of Sun Valley, where she learned to ski and race.

She attended Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School in Salt Lake City, Utah, and participated in its Rowmark Ski Academy for one year before returning to Sun Valley to race for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. Before joining the academy, she was a member of the local Hailey Ski Team.[3]

Skiing career

Street joined the U.S. Ski Team in 1989 at the age of 17. She primarily competed in the speed events of downhill and super G, with her World Cup debut at age 21 in a slalom on December 6, 1992. Two months later at the 1993 World Championships in Japan she won the silver medal in the combined event.[4]

1994–1996

After her silver medal performance in the downhill at the 1994 Winter Olympics, a run was named after her at Sun Valley, on the Warm Springs side of Bald Mountain; the expert run formerly known as "Plaza" became "Picabo's Street." Street joined Christin Cooper and Gretchen Fraser as Sun Valley Olympic medalists (their named runs are on Seattle Ridge).

By winning the 1995 downhill title, she became the first American to win a World Cup season title in a speed event. She repeated as downhill champion the following season, adding the title of world champion with her gold medal at the 1996 World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

1997–2002

In early December 1996, she suffered a knee injury training in Colorado after competing in just two races, and sat out the remainder of the 1997 season. A month after her gold medal win in the super G at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Street careened off course while racing at the final downhill of the 1998 season at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. She crashed, snapping her left femur and tearing a ligament in her right knee.[5][6] She was in rehabilitation for two years following the accident.

Street returned to ski racing in late 2000, and retired from international competition after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, where she finished 16th in the downhill.[2]

Personal life

Street is retired and splits her time between homes in Alabama and Winter Park, Colorado. She has a son, Treyjan James Pawley, born in August 2004, with her former partner N. J. Pawley. On October 25, 2008, she married businessman John Reeser atop Prospect Mountain, near Hanceville, Alabama.[7] On August 3, 2009, Picabo gave birth to her second son, Dax Meyer Street Reeser, in Birmingham.

On ESPN's College Game Day in Boise on September 25, 2010, Picabo stated that she was pregnant and expecting her third boy.

She named her skis for people who were strong and meaningful to her. Among them are her "Earnies" (after Dale Earnhardt) and her "Arnolds" (after Arnold Schwarzenegger).[8]

She appeared on the TV shows Nickelodeon GUTS in 1994, and Pyramid (2002). She performed well on the show American Gladiators, where Street used her strength to defeat the gladiator character "Ice" in a couple of events.

In the late 1990s, after her success at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Street became a spokeswoman for a variety of products, including the soft drink Mountain Dew and ChapStick-brand lip balm.

In 1998 she signed with Giro Sport Design which was then developing its first winter sports helmet. In August she toured the company's headquarters/manufacturing facility, then located in Santa Cruz, CA. She spoke with the senior manufacturing engineer, a long-time skier himself, about the progression of equipment, signing a prototype helmet for him as she left.[9] She also appeared on Celebrity Paranormal Project.

She wrote an autobiography in 2001 titled Picabo: Nothing to Hide ( ISBN 0-07-140693-X). In it, Street revealed the pressure placed on her by her sponsors to succeed and win, which she maintains contributed to her devastating 1998 crash. She also described how she was able to transform from a rebellious tomboy into a world-class athlete.

A feature film based on Street's life story was in development as of late 2009, written by Eric Preston with director Charles Winkler slated to direct, and produced by Jeff Luini and Richard Weiner. Filming was slated begin in 2010 in Argentina.[10]

She appeared in a skit on Sesame Street, where Elmo was looking for Peekaboo Street and he met the real Picabo Street. Her name also appeared in the song "One Big Mob" by the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Picabo was the runner up (with a time of 5:37) in the NBC celebrity reality competition series Stars Earn Stripes.[11]

World Cup results

Season titles

Season Discipline
1995Downhill
1996Downhill

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiant
Slalom		Super GDownhillCombined
1993213956—3918—
19942236——42816
1995235——81—
1996246—491415
19972571———25—
19982646——2417—
199927no World Cup starts
200028
20012968———26—
20023052———17—

Race podiums

  • 9 wins – (9 DH)
  • 17 podiums – (15 DH, 2 SG)
Season Date Location Discipline Place
199313 March 1993Kvitfjell, NorwayDownhill2nd
19959 December 1994Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill1st
11 December 1994Super G3rd
14 January 1995Garmisch, GermanySuper G2nd
20 January 1995Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyDownhill2nd
21 January 1995Downhill1st
17-Feb-1995Åre, SwedenDownhill1st
4 March 1995Saalbach, AustriaDownhill1st
11 March 1995Lenzerheide, Switzerland  Downhill1st
15 March 1995Bormio, ItalyDownhill1st
199601-Dec-1995Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill1st
16 December 1995St. Anton, AustriaDownhill3rd
19 January 1996Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyDownhill1st
20 January 1996Downhill2nd
3 February 1996Val-d'Isère, FranceDownhill2nd
29 February 1996Narvik, NorwayDownhill1st
1 March 1996Downhill2nd

World Championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 		Super GDownhillCombined
199321———102
199624——31—
199725injured, did not compete
199927

Olympic results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 		Super GDownhillCombined
199422———210
199826——16—
200230———16—

References

  1. ↑ ALPINE SKIING: Picabo Street
  2. 1 2 Phillips, Bob (2002). "Injuries haven't stopped greatest U.S. skier". ESPN. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  3. ↑ http://www.rowlandhall.org/schoollife/rowmark/college_placement/index.php Recent Articles : Ski Program – Rowmark Ski Academy, accessed February 21, 2010
  4. ↑ "Vogt wins women's combined". Lodi News Sentinel. wire services. February 6, 1993. p. 15.
  5. ↑ The Augusta Chronicle – 1998-03-14 – accessed 2011-04-03
  6. ↑ "Street breaks leg in crash". Lodi News Sentinel. Associated Press. March 14, 1998. p. 12.
  7. ↑ Sheff-Cahan, Vicki (November 3, 2008). "Olympic skier Picabo Street weds". People. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  8. ↑ United States Olympic Committee – Street, Picabo
  9. ↑ "The Santa Cruz Sentinel", 6 Aug 1998.
  10. ↑ "SportsBusiness Daily: Names In The News". September 2, 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2010. Producers Richard Weiner and Jeff Luini will make a new movie based on the life of U.S. skier Picabo Street. Directed by Charles Winkler and written by Eric Preston, Picabo will start filming sometime in '10 in Argentina.
  11. ↑ "Stars Earn Stripes, Episode 105 (Harbor Demolition) Results". Retrieved 2012-09-08.
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