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Picabo prepares for final Olympic downhill
Tom Kirkland
KSL-TV sports specialist
Four years and literally dozens of surgeries later, the girl from Triumph, Idaho, is belting out an incredibly uplifting swan song. She talked recently with KSL.
"My rehab was hard," she says. "It was tough. There were days when I didn't move forward. I didn't move forward today. How am I going to get there?"
"The Salt Lake Olympics was so important for me, absolutely irreplacable. Without it, who knows if we'd even be sitting together today," Street says.
Despite a so-so season on the World Cup tour, Picabo roars into Salt Lake City with that same old swagger. The 30-year-old faces her final runs of Olympic downhill competition with her usual mantra, "Bring it on!"
"It feels crazy, good," she tells us. "I've been waiting for the moment to be around the corner, and tomorrow, for a long time. It finally is! And it's just like, 'Yes!' Going through the World Cup season was just to keep myself busy, keep myself skiing fast. I couldn't have done without it and be ready to go here. I'm so confident at Snowbasin."
Monday Picabo hopes to run away and hide from the rest of the world. She may not come in on a roll, but this course might as well be Picabo Street.
"I definitely have a mental edge here," she says. "I grew up racing down here. The rock that is on every building in Snowbasin comes from my rock quarry that I grew up working in when I was young. All the people that will be around will be Americans. They'll be cheering for me above every other country, myself and my team. They're going to be, 'Hoorah for us!'"
Picabo says the time has come to kick back, get married, and enjoy wherever her path leads. This is a woman who's very secure in her world.
"The fact that I've made it this far is really something special, and I'm proud of myself already," she explains. "If I end up prevailing at the Games and winning a medal, it is just going to be the cherry on top of a really spectacular career."
"I really want to do it. I want to go out with a bang. I want to give America pure and fresh to be proud of."
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February 11, 2002
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