Picabo Street

• Born: April 3, 1971
• Place of Birth: Triumph, Idaho

SPORT: Skiing

Early Life

Picabo Street was born on April 3, 1971, in Triumph, Idaho, to Roland Street II, a stonemason, and Dee Street, a music teacher. She grew up with an older brother, Roland III. The town of Triumph is located near the ski area of Sun Valley. Until she was three years old, Street's counterculture parents referred to her as “Baby Girl.” As free thinkers, they believed that their children could give themselves their own names when they felt like it. When the family decided to travel to Mexico and Central America, however, her parents had to put specific names on the children’s passport applications. She was given the name Picabo after a local village with an American Indian name meaning "shining waters" (although she did like to play the children’s game of “peek-a-boo” as a child).

Until Street was fourteen, there was no television in the family home. She was active as a child and enjoyed playing with the local boys. There were only eight children in the entire town of Triumph, and Street was the only girl. Known for her fearlessness as a child, she began skiing at her elementary school after it had started a weekly ski program. Although her parents could not afford to dress her in the latest ski clothes and accessories, she regularly raced against and beat children who were much older and who could afford to wear expensive ski apparel.

The Road to Excellence

In 1986, at the age of fifteen, Street was chosen for the US junior ski team. She showed so much promise on the junior team that she was promoted to the US ski team in 1987. Always a free spirit and a fiery competitor, she had trouble doing what the coaches told her to do. Although the coaches recognized that Street had the potential to be one of the best competitors on the ski team, they found her independent attitude difficult to control. In 1990, she was suspended from the team because of her rebellious nature. She visited her father, who was working in Hawaii, and he encouraged her to become more disciplined.

By the time she returned to the ski team in 1991, Street was in excellent shape. At 5 feet 7 inches and approximately 160 pounds, she had become physically powerful. In 1991 and 1992, she was the North American Championship Series overall champion. She continued to improve, and she competed on her first World Cup circuit in 1992. She became the top US female racer by improving her world ranking from forty-first to eighth in the World Cup. While some experts still believed that Street was too undisciplined to succeed, she surprised both fans and critics alike at the 1993 World Alpine Ski Championships in Morioka, Japan, by capturing the silver medal in the combined downhill and slalom.

The Emerging Champion

In addition to winning the silver medal at Morioka, Japan, in 1993, Street won the gold medal at the United States Alpine Championships and the US super-giant slalom (super-G) title. She was becoming popular with the media not only for her talent on the slopes, but also for her all-American image and her willingness to speak her mind. While her coaches remained nervous about her impetuous nature, the media and the public fell in love with her zest for life.

Street’s next challenge was at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. She dreamed of winning an Olympic medal. In dramatic fashion, her dream came true when she won the silver medal in the downhill. She may have been edged out for the gold medal by Germany’s Katja Seizinger, but Street was extremely satisfied with her results.

Building upon her Olympic success, Street had a marvelous 1994–95 season in World Cup competition. She won six out of the nine downhill races and captured the World Cup women’s downhill title for 1995. She was the first American—male or female—to win a World Cup downhill season championship. In 1996, she captured her second World Cup women’s downhill title and won a gold medal in the downhill at the World Ski Championships held in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Picabo was at the top of the skiing world and had become a media celebrity, but on December 4, 1996, she suffered a debilitating knee injury while training in Vail, Colorado. She tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in her left knee and needed many months of physical therapy before she could get back to skiing competitively.

Continuing the Story

Street persevered through six months of physical therapy and finally was able to resume skiing in July 1997. She competed in several World Cup events toward the end of the year. Her confidence was rising when she had another accident on January 31, 1998, at a World Cup competition in Are, Sweden. The accident took place merely six days before the 1998 Winter Olympics were to start. She suffered a minor concussion, a neck injury, and an assortment of bruises.

Not to be deterred, Street competed in the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Although her head and neck were still sore, she dramatically won the gold medal in the super-G. She did not get to savor this victory for long, however, as she soon suffered injury again. On March 13, 1998, she broke her left leg in nine places and tore ligaments in her right knee while competing in the final race of the World Cup season at Crans Montana, Switzerland. Always pushing herself, she needed more than a year off from skiing to properly recuperate from such a horrific accident.

As a world-renowned athlete and celebrity, Street appeared in commercials for various products. She also served as director of skiing at the Park City Mountain Resort, located in Utah. After filming a training video for the Air Force, she was given the opportunity to fly in an F-16 Thunderbird. The plane broke the sound barrier.

Street’s return to competitive skiing was a struggle. In her first race back, she placed thirty-fourth in a super-G. In her next races, she placed twenty-fourth, fortieth, and fifteenth before improving to seventh and fifth. In March 2001, she finally won a race, a Super Series downhill in Snowbasin, Utah. Though the event was not a World Cup race, Street’s competitors were eighteen of the top twenty skiers. Her next win was a silver medal in a US national championship in Big Mountain, Montana.

At the 2002 Olympics in Park City, Utah, Street was determined to become the first US skier to win a medal in three straight Olympics. On the day of the downhill, she drew position number twenty-six. Dealing with an unfavorable start position and deteriorating weather conditions, she finished sixteenth. After the race, Street announced her retirement from competitive skiing.

After retiring, Street continued to be an ambassador of the Park City Mountain Resort. She continued to ski regularly and also raised horses. Determined to make a difference for the next generation, she started the Picabo Street of Dreams Foundation to provide financial assistance to children who want to chase their own dreams. She also became a spokesperson for the National Children’s Alliance (NCA), a group overseeing advocacy centers helping children of abuse. In 2005, Street began a fundraiser called the Picabo Ski Challenge to help raise funds for the NCA.

In 2016, Street was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse in an altercation with her father. The charges were eventually dropped, and the altercation was revealed to be the result of a medical condition that altered Street’s father’s demeanor on the day of the incident. In 2022, a documentary about Street premiered as part of the Olympic Channel’s Five Rings Film Series. Picabo, directed by another American skier, Lindsey Vonn, who counts Street as an inspiration, provided an in-depth look into the trials and triumphs of her skiing career and sometimes turbulent personal life.

Summary

Picabo Street established herself as one of the premier skiers of the 1990s. She was a fiery competitor who was not afraid to take risks to succeed on the slopes. Always outspoken and independent, she became a spokesperson for people, especially girls and young women, who believed that they could also succeed if they worked hard enough. Street’s love of skiing and competition made her one of the best skiers that the United States ever produced. Her determination to return to skiing after two major injuries inspired skiers and nonskiers alike.

Bibliography

Anderson, Kelli. “Where Are They Now? Picabo Street.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 107, no. 1, 2 July 2007, pp. 108-111.

Cooper, Christin. “Picabo Rules.” Skiing, vol. 48, Sept. 1995, pp. 102-107.

Layden, Tim. “Street Fighting.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 88, 23 Feb. 1998, pp. 40-45.

“Picabo: New Documentary Co-directed by Lindsey Vonn Out Now - How to Watch.” Olympics, 21 Jan. 2022, olympics.com/en/news/picabo-documentary-lindsey-vonn-beijing-2022. Accessed 11 June 2024.

“Picabo Street Opens Up About Her Father's Illness, Dismissed Domestic Violence Charges.” ABC News, 13 Apr. 2016, abcnews.go.com/US/picabo-street-opens-fathers-illness-dismissed-domestic-violence/story?id=38350142. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.

Reece, Gabrielle. “Picabo.” Women’s Sports and Fitness, Nov./Dec. 1998, pp. 70-73.

Reibstein, Larry. “The Golden Girl.” Newsweek, vol. 131, 23 Feb. 1998, pp. 46-48.

Street, Picabo. Picabo: Nothing to Hide. New York: Contemporary Books, 2002.