Picabo Street

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.

Picabo Street

Alpine skier
Picabo Street in October 1999
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

Early life

Street was born at home in Triumph, Idaho; her 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 two skits on Sesame Street with the character Elmo. In one, Elmo was looking for a place called Peekaboo Street and met the real Picabo Street; in the other, Elmo insisted on introducing Picabo because he thought she was a world champion peek-a-boo player. 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
1995	Downhill
1996	Downhill

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant Slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1993	21	39	56	—	39	18	—
1994	22	36	—	—	42	8	16
1995	23	5	—	—	8	1	—
1996	24	6	—	49	14	1	5
1997	25	71	—	—	—	25	—
1998	26	46	—	—	24	17	—
1999	27	no World Cup starts
2000	28
2001	29	68	—	—	—	26	—
2002	30	52	—	—	—	17	—

Race podiums

• 9 wins – (9 DH)
• 17 podiums – (15 DH, 2 SG)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Place
1993	13 March 1993	Kvitfjell, Norway	Downhill	2nd
1995	9 December 1994	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill	1st
	11 December 1994		Super G	3rd
	14 January 1995	Garmisch, Germany	Super G	2nd
	20 January 1995	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Downhill	2nd
	21 January 1995		Downhill	1st
	17-Feb-1995	Åre, Sweden	Downhill	1st
	4 March 1995	Saalbach, Austria	Downhill	1st
	11 March 1995	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Downhill	1st
	15 March 1995	Bormio, Italy	Downhill	1st
1996	01-Dec-1995	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill	1st
	16 December 1995	St. Anton, Austria	Downhill	3rd
	19 January 1996	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Downhill	1st
	20 January 1996		Downhill	2nd
	3 February 1996	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	2nd
	29 February 1996	Narvik, Norway	Downhill	1st
	1 March 1996		Downhill	2nd

World Championship results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   Slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1993	21	—	—	—	10	2
1996	24	—	—	3	1	—
1997	25	injured, did not compete
1999	27

Olympic results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   Slalom	Super G	Downhill	Combined
1994	22	—	—	—	2	10
1998	26	—	—	1	6	—
2002	30	—	—	—	16	—

References

1. ALPINE SKIING: Picabo Street
2. Phillips, Bob (2002). "Injuries haven't stopped greatest U.S. skier". ESPN. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
3. http://www.rowlandhall.org/schoollife/rowmark/college_placement/index.php Archived 31 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine Recent Articles : Ski Program – Rowmark Ski Academy, accessed February 21, 2010
4. "Vogt wins women's combined". Lodi News Sentinel. wire services. 6 February 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. 14 March 1998. p. 12.
7. Sheff-Cahan, Vicki (3 November 2008). "Olympic skier Picabo Street weds". People. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
8. United States Olympic Committee – Street, Picabo
9. "The Santa Cruz Sentinel", 6 Aug 1998.
10. "SportsBusiness Daily: Names In The News". 2 September 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 8 September 2012.

External links

• Picabo Street at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com World Cup standings
• Picabo Street at Ski-DB Alpine Ski Database
• Picabo Street at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Picabo Street at the International Olympic Committee
• U.S. Ski Hall of Fame – Picabo Street – inducted 2004