LAKE LOUISE, Alberta ? There is no doubt Picabo Street's competitive zeal is back. She considered a fifth-place finish in Friday's World Cup women's downhill a big disappointment.
Isolde Kostner of Italy, the overall World Cup champion in the downhill last season, kept up her uncanny dominance at Lake Louise with her second victory in as many days. On the same course, she has won three in a row and four out of five downhills in the past three years.
Kostner won in 1 minute, 38.13 seconds on the cold but spectacularly sunny day in the Canadian Rockies. Sylviane Berthod of Switzerland matched her World Cup best with a second, in 1:38.19.
Reigning downhill world champion Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria ? second on Thursday ? was third in 1:38.35, one-hundredth of a second ahead of Canadian Melanie Turgeon, who injured her shoulder and knee in a crash Thursday but came back strong.
What is it about this most scenic of skiing venues that makes Kostner so unbeatable?
"There is something for sure but I don't know what," she said. "I just love this place. I like everything here. Everyone is cold every morning. I am never cold. It's always nice to come back here."
The temperature was 10 degrees at the finish line as the 65 skiers came down the course.
Street, coming back from serious leg injuries that nearly ended her skiing career in 1998, was happy with her sixth-place finish in Thursday's downhill, but Friday fifth was another matter.
The 30-year-old Olympic gold medalist in the 1998 super G and silver medalist in the 1994 downhill was the second skier down the course, and her time of 1:38.46 stood up through 21 competitors.
Kostner, again skiing out of her lucky 22 spot, bumped Street out of the lead, then Dorfmeister knocked her into third. When Turgeon moved ahead of her into third to the cheers of the Canadian fans, Street stormed off the mountain without talking to reporters.
"I'm progressing. I'm still moving forward," she said later. "I'm getting better at certain things every time I ski. But I'm capable of winning now, and that's what is tough."
Her U.S. teammate Kirsten Clark was eighth in 1:38.63. Street and Clark give the Americans two legitimate medal contenders in the women's downhill at Snowbasin at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Despite her disappointment, Street had her best World Cup finish since a fourth in Cortina, Italy, in January of 1998.
"I'll take a fifth here if it leads to gold at Snowbasin," she said.
Clark, 24, of Raymond, Maine, was 11th Thursday. Two weeks ago at Copper Mountain, Colo., she finished ninth in a World Cup slalom, her first top 10 finish in that event. That could make her a threat for the gold in the combined event at the Olympics.