Winning again, Picabo returns to roots
Nor-Am downhill queen
Two weeks away from her 30th birthday, Picabo Street is
retracing her steps—trying to return to the lofty level of 1995-98 when
she was the best female downhiller in the world.
Picabo, after two tough winters of injury rehabilitation,
took a couple of big steps forward last week on Wildflower run at
Snowbasin, Utah, where the 2002 Olympic speed races will be staged in 11
months.
Thursday, Triumph native and Park City resident Street
continued a string of solid performances by winning a Chevy Truck Super
Series Finals downhill by over a half-second in a world-class field of
racers.
Starting fifth, Street (1:41.57) won by .51 seconds over
world downhill champion Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria and .64 seconds
over Germany’s third-place Hilde Gerg, who had won the World Cup finals
DH at Are, Swe. March 8.
"I feel good," said Street, the 1998 Olympic
super giant slalom gold medalist and 1995-96 World Cup DH queen.
"What I’m looking for is the feeling on my skis. That’s all I’ve
been working on all year, and that’s all I keep working on.
"What it’s starting to do now is make me move
fast."
Then, on Sunday, 5-7, 161-pound ball-of-fire Street was
third .36 seconds behind winner Dorfmeister in the Super Series DH finale
on Wildflower.
Her closest teammate in the international field of 51
racers was Kirsten Clark, who had captured a World Cup downhill at
Lenzerheide, Switz. in February. Clark finished eighth Thursday and fifth
Sunday.
Street, the 1996 world DH champ and 1994 Olympic DH silver
medalist, finished the season atop the Nor-Am DH standings with five DH
wins. She had swept four Nor-Am speed races at Whistler, B.C., Canada
earlier this month.
Of course, in 1991 and 1992 rising star Street was the
Nor-Am overall champion before jumping full-time on the World Cup tour in
1993. The one-time Wood River High School student has now been on the U.S.
Ski Team for 13 years.
After Sunday’s Snowbasin race, U.S. women left for Big
Mountain, Mt. where the 2001 U.S. Alpine Ski Championships will be staged
March 22-28.
