Picabo Street

Photogenic charisma and brutal speed (not to mention an unforgettable name) have made Picabo Street one of the best known of the U.S. skiers. Noted for her natural talent and easygoing charm, she has become 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 Picabo at age six first began racing. She developed into a national junior champion.

Picabo joined 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 1994-95 season, she 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 1995-96, adding three more circuit victories as well as first- (downhill) and third-place (supergiant slalom) finishes at the world Alpine ski championships.

After a serious knee injury in 1996, she returned to the slopes for the 1997-98 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.

In addition to her Olympic, World Cup, World Championship and U.S. Championship accolades, Picabo has been named USOC Sportswoman of the Year twice--in 1995 and 1998.

Picabo plans to compete in the 2002 Games at her home resort, Park City Mountain Resort, and is actively training with the U.S. Ski Team.

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