Picabo Street is never at a loss for words. An extremely outgoing person, her personality and her silver medal in the downhill at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, made Street a star. During the 1994-95 season, she accomplished a feat no American woman had ever achieved--winning the World Cup international championship in the downhill--and then repeated the next year. Street suffered a near career-ending knee injury in December 1996, but recovered in time to win a gold medal in the Super Giant Slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In a career full of thrills and spills, she has established herself as the best female skier in American history.

Growing up

"Shiny Waters"

Picabo Street was born April 3, 1971, in Triumph, Idaho. Her father, Roland "Stubby" Street, is a stonemason, and her mother, Dee, is a music teacher. Street's parents moved from Reno, Nevada, to Idaho in 1969 to...