Picabo Street (; born 3 April 1971) is an American former

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She won the super G at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

and the

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

at the 1996 World Championships, along with three other Olympic and World Championship medals. Street also won

downhill season titles in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, 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 The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Ishpeming, Michigan, the birthplace of organized skiing in the United States. Located in the state's Upper Peninsula, the building includes the hall of fame and museum, as well as a t ...

in 2004.

Early life

Street was born at home in

Triumph, Idaho Triumph is an unincorporated community in the East Fork of Big Wood River, Blaine County, Idaho, United States. Triumph was the location of the Triumph Mine, which was discovered in the 19th century and closed in 1957 after a history of produci ...

; 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 A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

. She was named after the nearby village of Picabo. 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 Rowland Hall (RHSM) (formerly Rowland Hall-St. Mark's) is an independent school of 945 students from preschool to high school on two campuses in Salt Lake City, Utah. The current headmaster is Mick Gee. There are 100 teachers, with approximately ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, 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.

Skiing career

Street joined the

U.S. Ski Team The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and ...

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at the age of 17. She primarily competed in the speed events of

and super G, with her World Cup debut at age 21 in a

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

on 6 December,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. Two months later at the 1993 World Championships in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

she won the silver medal in the combined event.

1994–1996

After her silver medal performance in the

at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

, 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 Christin Elizabeth Cooper (born October 10, 1959) is a former FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine Skiing, alpine ski racer and Alpine skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics – Women's giant slalom, Olympic medalist from the United States. Ea ...

and

Gretchen Fraser Gretchen Kunigk Fraser (February 11, 1919 – February 17, 1994) was an American alpine ski racer. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing. She was also the skiing stand-in for ice skater Sonja Henie in the movies ' ...

as Sun Valley Olympic medalists (their named runs are on Seattle Ridge). By winning the

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 The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

1997–2002

While training in Colorado in early December 1996, Street suffered an

ACL injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

to her left knee and missed the remainder of the

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season. A month after her gold medal win in the super G at the

, she careened off course at the final downhill of the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

season at

Crans-Montana Crans-Montana is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Chermignon, Mollens, Montana and Randogne merged to form the new municipality of Crans-Montana. Cr ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Street crashed, snapping her left femur and tearing the ACL in her right knee. She was in

rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

for two years following the accident. Street returned to ski racing in late

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, and retired from international competition after the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

, where she finished sixteenth in the

Commercial endeavors

Street appeared on the TV shows '' Nickelodeon GUTS'' in 1994, and ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

'' (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

, Street became a spokeswoman for a variety of products, including the soft drink

Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew, is a carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman. A revised formula was created by Bill Brid ...

and

ChapStick ChapStick is a brand name of lip balm manufactured by Haleon and used in many countries worldwide. It is intended to help treat and prevent chapped lips, hence the name. Many varieties also include sunscreen in order to prevent sunburn. Due to ...

-brand

lip balm Lip balm or lip salve is a wax-like substance applied topically to the lips to moisturize and relieve chapped or dry lips, angular cheilitis, stomatitis, or cold sores. Lip balm often contains beeswax or carnauba wax, camphor, cetyl alcohol, lan ...

. 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 Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a p ...

. 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. She also appeared on ''

Celebrity Paranormal Project ''Celebrity Paranormal Project'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''CPP'') is a paranormal reality television series that originally aired from October 22 to December 17, 2006, on VH1. Except for a different title and use of celebrities, the VH1 show i ...

''. She wrote an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

in 2001 titled ''Picabo: Nothing to Hide'' (). 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 A tomboy is a term for a girl or a young woman with masculine qualities. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and actively engage in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men. W ...

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 Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. She appeared in two skits on ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' with the character

Elmo Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...

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 Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea (musician), Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates element ...

. Street was the runner up (with a time of 5:37) in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

celebrity reality competition series ''

Stars Earn Stripes ''Stars Earn Stripes'' is a reality television program that aired for one season on NBC beginning August 13, 2012. Produced by Mark Burnett, the series follows a group of celebrities, accompanied by current and former members of the United State ...

''.

Personal life

Street is retired and splits her time between homes in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

and

Winter Park, Colorado Winter Park is a home rule municipality in Grand County, Colorado, United States. The permanent population was 999 at the 2010 census, although with 2,572 housing units within the town limits the seasonal population can be much higher. It is ho ...

. She has a son born in August 2004, with her former partner N. J. Pawley. On 25 October 2008, she married businessman John Reeser atop Prospect Mountain, near

Hanceville, Alabama Hanceville is a city in Cullman County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,217. History Founded in Blount County, Hanceville was established in 1832 and incorporated in May 1879. At the time of Cullman County's cr ...

. On 3 August 2009, Street gave birth to her second son. On

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's '' College Game Day'' in

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area's ...

on 25 September 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 Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably dri ...

) and her "Arnolds" (after

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

).United States Olympic Committee – Street, Picabo
/ref>

World Cup results

Season titles

Season standings

Race podiums

* 9 wins – (9 DH) * 17 podiums – (15 DH, 2 SG)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

*
FIS-ski.com
World Cup standings * * *
U.S. Ski Hall of Fame
– Picabo Street – inducted 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Street, Picabo Olympic gold medalists for the United States in alpine skiing Olympic silver medalists for the United States in alpine skiing American female alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics People from Blaine County, Idaho 1971 births Living people Participants in American reality television series FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Idaho 21st-century American women