Picabo Street was born in the appropriately-named town of Triumph in the U.S. state of Idaho.
The national anthem as motivator
She finished second in the downhill at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. As she stood on the podium with the silver medal around her neck, she listened to the German national anthem being played for Katja Seizinger and thought, "Next time I'm back up here, I'm going to be listening to my national anthem played for me". She even took lessons from her mother so that she would not forget the words.
Super-G on downhill skies lead her to victory
Street's chances looked good until she took a bad spill and missed a full year of competition. She began racing again only eight weeks before the 1998 Winter Olympics. Only a week before the Nagano Opening Ceremony, she fell and was knocked unconscious for two minutes. The Olympic super giant slalom was delayed one day because of heavy snow. The course was almost as straight as a downhill, so Street chose downhill skis and was rewarded for her decision. She overcame a mid-race error and finished in a time that was one one-hundredth of a second faster than Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria. At the medal ceremony, Picabo Street got the words right. She participated again in the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, finishing 16th in the downhill event.
