Picabo Street’s biography

I just finished reading Picabo’s bio that stops in 2001. 

I had seen the book for a long time at our public library and finally decided to read it. I found the book interesting, honest and it showed me that some fantastic skiers can emerge from poor and sometimes dysfunctional families. 

In fact, Picabo Street’s path and character are very similar to Bode Miller’s. Then you have the well-to-do kids like Lindsey Vonn, Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shifrin, that had a big advantage of capitalizing on their god-given talents thank to a relentless parental support. 

The rest of the athletes muddle through and generally can’t get much of a foothold in a sport that isn’t nearly as well organized in the United States than it is in Europe through well-run ski federations. 

Street who has lived in Park City for a long time has had her share of problems. Her bio stops in 2001, on the eve of the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Olympics in which she only placed 16 and decided to retire. 

In 2005, she was inducted into the US Ski Hall of Fame, and in 2015, she was charged with domestic violence and assault relating to an incident when she allegedly pushed her elderly father down the stairs of her Park City home, but was later exonerated. 

More recently, she co-founded the Picabo Street Academy in Park City, with Michelle Demschar and Dan Kemp, that provides individualized schooling to students training in sports and the arts.