Picabo Street

__NOTOC__Picabo Street (born April 3, 1971, in Triumph, Idaho) is an American skier, now retired and living in Park City, Utah.

Early life and competition skiing

She was raised on a small farm in Triumph, several miles southeast of Sun Valley, Idaho, where she learned to ski and race. She attended Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School in Salt Lake City and participated in its skiing academy, Rowmark. [http://rowmark.org/ski.program/recent.articles.php Recent Articles : Ski Program ... Rowmark Ski Academy, accessed March 16, 2007] She first joined the United States Ski Team in 1989, at the age of 17.

Her given name was inspired by the nearby Idaho town of Picabo, Idaho, (pronounced "Peekaboo"), which in turn takes its name from a Native American word meaning "shining waters". She primarily competed in the speed events of Downhill and Super G.

Fame

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.) She appeared on the TV show Nickelodeon GUTS in 1994.

By winning the 1995 World Cup in Downhill, she became the first American ever to win a season title in a speed event. In 1998, shortly after her Gold Medal win in the 1998 Winter Olympics, Street careened off course while racing in Switzerland, crashing and snapping her left femur, and tearing the ligament in her right knee. She was in rehabilitation for two years following the accident.

She returned to skiing, and retired after the 2002 Winter Olympics, in Utah where she currently lives [ [http://www.playingfieldpromotions.com/player.asp?id=98 Picabo Street Speaker Picabo Street Appearance, Agent ] ] , with nine career victories. She has written an autobiography entitled "Nothing to Hide" (ISBN 0-07-140693-X). In her autobiography, Street reveals the pressures placed on her by her sponsors to succeed and win, which she partly contributes to her devastating 1998 crash. She also talks of how she was able to transform from a rebellious tomboy into a world class athlete.

Other

*Named her skis, mainly after people who are strong and mean a lot to her - among them, she has her Earnies (after Dale Earnhardt) and Arnolds (Arnold Schwarzenegger) [ [http://www.usoc.org/26_13382.htm United States Olympic Committee - Street, Picabo ] ]
*Street was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2005.
*She has appeared on "Celebrity Paranormal Project".
*In the late 1990s, after her success at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Street became a spokesperson for Mountain Dew, being featured on the product's packaging and ads.

World Cup victories

Overall results

Individual victories

References

External links

* Results
* [http://www.ski-db.com/db/profiles/wstrpi.asp Ski-db.com] Results
* [http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/picabo.asp Picabo I.C.U.]
* [http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/129625-ebook.htm Ebook, "Nothing to Hide"]