Picabo Street is doing more than winning downhills. She's making American history.
Street became the first American, man or woman, to win three straight World Cup downhills Sunday. Her fourth victory of the season gives her more than any American has accomplished over an entire career.And, with two races remaining, she's within reach of the downhill title, a championship no American has ever won in 29 seasons of World Cup racing.
"(She's) awesome," U.S. women's downhill coach Ernst Hager said. "Picabo wasn't convincing all the way down - she was third at the last intermediate timing and really finished strong. That's where she won it again."
Street won in 1 minute, 37.87 seconds, beating Warwara Zelanskaja of Russia and Isolde Kostner of Italy by 0.16 seconds.
"You can't really say this was her kind of course because with four wins, they're all her kind of course," Hager said. "She's become so good in the turns and such a good glider, and she's so very consistent. She makes so few mistakes on the way down, which is the key."
"I'm a little bit surprised. I was lucky," the 23-year-old Sun Valley, Idaho star said after giving the United States' women their sixth downhill victory in seven races.
It didn't appear lucky to the rest of the field, not after watching Street dominate the training runs leading up to the race.
Street won her first World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta, early this season and added victories in the previous two races at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and Are, Sweden.
Teammate Hilary Lindh, who was 14th on Sunday, has the other two American victories and ranks second in the downhill standings. Were it not for Street, Lindh would be having the best season ever by an American woman downhiller. As it is, she's second behind Street in the season standings.
Street's victory was the front end of an American double Sunday. AJ Kitt of Rochester, N.Y., achieved the second victory by the United States men by capturing a storm-shortened event at Aspen, Colo. American downhillers have combined to win eight times this year after getting only 12 victories in 28 previous seasons.
At Aspen, Colo., just in case anyone had any doubts about what a victory in America's Downhill meant to AJ Kitt, he cleared it up quickly.
"I got my revenge today," Kitt said after officials declared him the winner of a race halted after 31 skiers had run. Heavy snow was falling, obscuring the visibility.
Kitt did a 360-degree spin and raised his hands in triumph after turning in a time of 1 minute 45.46 seconds, more than a half-second ahead of the nearest competitor.
Comedian Chevy Chase, who owns a home in the area, gave him a high five at the finish line.
Austria's Armin Assinger finished second in 1:46.04, Norway's Lasse Kjus third in 1:46.15.
In 1993, Kitt had the fastest time, too, but race officials called the race because a hole had developed in the course. The resulting controversy produced a shakeup in International Ski Federation and a slump in Kitt's career.
"That day has loomed with me for two years," Kitt said. "After today, psychologically it's fantastic. I've broken through and jumped the biggest obstacle of my life."
Kitt also lost a victory at Val d'Isere in 1992 because a race was stopped.
If the French team has anything to do with it, Kitt will be back to square one. They filed a protest of the race, the results of which knocked Frenchman Luc Alphand from first place in the World Cup downhill standings.