STREET, PICABO

born April 3, 1971, Triumph, Idaho, U.S. American Alpine skier who was one of the most successful downhill skiers of the 1990s. Street earned two World Cup downhill titles (199495 and 199596), and, noted for her natural talent and easygoing charm, she became one of the most popular figures of the sport, both in the United States and abroad. The sole girl among eight children, she was called Baby Girl for three years by her counterculture parents before they settled on Picabo (pronounced "peek-a-boo"), naming her after a nearby town known by an American Indian word for "shining waters." Also nearby was Sun Valley, the ski resort where Street at age six first began racing. She developed into a national junior champion, but reaching the next level of competition proved to be an uphill battle for the downhill speedster. She was asked to leave the U.S. ski team during the summer of 1990 for poor conditioning and attitude. Committing herself anew, Street rejoined the national squad and in 1993 posted several high finishes in World Cup races, including a silver-medal performance at the world Alpine ski championships. She earned a silver medal in the downhill at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. During an extraordinary 199495 season, Street captured six downhill victories in nine races on the World Cup circuit to become the first non-European ever to win the downhill title. She repeated as the World Cup downhill champion in 199596, adding three more circuit victories as well as first- (downhill) and third-place (supergiant slalom) finishes at the world Alpine ski championships. In December 1996, however, Street suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery and put her out of competition for the remainder of the 199697 season. She returned to the slopes for the 199798 season and surprised many when she won the supergiant slalom at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Her gold-medal victory was by the slimmest margin (0.01 sec) in the history of Olympic Alpine competition.