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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 in October 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | April 3, 1971 Triumph, Idaho, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Alpine skier | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skiing career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disciplines | Downhill, Super-G, Combined | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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
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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 three 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]
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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
While training in Colorado in early December 1996, Street suffered an ACL injury to her left knee and missed the remainder of the 1997 season.[5] A month after her gold medal win in the super G at the 1998 Winter Olympics, she careened off course at the final downhill of the 1998 season at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Street crashed, snapping her left femur and tearing the ACL in her right knee.[6][7] 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 sixteenth in the downhill.[2]
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Street 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.[8] 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.[9]
She appeared in two skits on Sesame Street with the character Elmo and Telly. In one, Telly 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.
Street was the runner up (with a time of 5:37) in the NBC celebrity reality competition series Stars Earn Stripes.[10]
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Street is retired and splits her time between homes in Alabama and Winter Park, Colorado. She has a son 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.[11] On August 3, 2009, Street gave birth to her second son.
On ESPN's College Game Day in Boise on September 25, 2010, Street stated that she was pregnant and expecting her third boy.
Street 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).[12]
In the early 2000s, an internet joke spread which claimed Street made a "substantial donation" to her hometown hospital, which named a wing after her, the "Picabo ICU" (as in "Peekaboo! I see you!"). Another version claimed she became an ICU nurse and would answer the phone by saying, "Picabo, ICU!" A less common variant claimed a fan feared Street would be injured and appear in a headline reading, "Picabo? ICU." All three variants of the joke were debunked by Snopes.[13]
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Season titles
Season standings
Race podiums
| Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | March 13, 1993 | Kvitfjell, Norway | Downhill | 2nd |
| 1995 | December 9, 1994 | Lake Louise, Canada | Downhill | 1st |
| December 11, 1994 | Super G | 3rd | ||
| January 14, 1995 | Garmisch, Germany | Super G | 2nd | |
| January 20, 1995 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Downhill | 2nd | |
| January 21, 1995 | Downhill | 1st | ||
| February 17, 1995 | Åre, Sweden | Downhill | 1st | |
| March 4, 1995 | Saalbach, Austria | Downhill | 1st | |
| March 11, 1995 | Lenzerheide, Switzerland | Downhill | 1st | |
| March 15, 1995 | Bormio, Italy | Downhill | 1st | |
| 1996 | December 1, 1995 | Lake Louise, Canada | Downhill | 1st |
| December 16, 1995 | St. Anton, Austria | Downhill | 3rd | |
| January 19, 1996 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Downhill | 1st | |
| January 20, 1996 | Downhill | 2nd | ||
| February 3, 1996 | Val-d'Isère, France | Downhill | 2nd | |
| February 29, 1996 | Narvik, Norway | Downhill | 1st | |
| March 1, 1996 | Downhill | 2nd |
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