Picabo Street

Her father encouraged Picabo to head down to Hawaii with him to train, convincing her that she could easily get back up to where she was, or become even better. She agreed, and in what Newsday reporter Tim Layden referred to as a "boot camp," Street shaped up and came back ready to dominate once again.

In 1991 Street was fierce on the slopes. She became overall champion for the North American Championship series, earning a ranking of eighth in the world in 1992 after winning silver in the downhill combined at the world championships in Japan. She also earned second place at the World Cup downhill in Norway, and later won the gold medal at the U.S. Alpine Championships. Throughout the first half of the nineties, Street stair-stepped her way up in the rankings, moving from 65 place all the way into first (in spite of the fact that she was consistently in trouble with her coaches for her continued questioning of authority). At only 22, Street fulfilled one of her dreams by medaling in the 1994 Olympics and earning silver in the downhill. After the Olympics, she continued her stellar ways that season, becoming the first American to win the World Cup women's downhill, taking six out of the nine races she participated in that season.