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Ron Street is bullish on daughter's chances
By Ray Grass
Deseret News Olympic specialist
Picabo Street is going to do well in these Winter Olympics, predicts her father, Ron Street, who expects her alpine ski performance to be one of those "moments" for him, like watching her walk up the Rice-Eccles Stadium stairs with the Olympic flame during Friday's opening ceremonies.
And who can argue with him? He's been right before, as he recalled a prediction he made 17 years earlier as an Idaho bus driver to 1968 three-gold alpine star Jean-Claude Killy.
"I was driving a ski bus in Sun Valley — Killy used to come in town," said Street, climbing aboard a shuttle about an hour after watching his daughter win Saturday's opening training run at Snowbasin. "He was on the bus one day, and I told him about my daughter and that she was going to win a gold medal.
"You know who put the medal around her neck in Nagano? Killy!" he continued, jumping to Picabo's super-G triumph at the 1998 Games.
"I hope his mind went . . . " Street snapped his fingers for a sound effect. " 'Yeah, that bus driver guy back in Sun Valley.' "
He also admitted that he came to these Olympics better prepared for Picabo's appearances.
"The second I found out she was going to carry the torch (in opening ceremonies), I said 'That's the only ticket I really want. I want one of those,' " he said with a burst of enthusiasm.
"In Lillehammer, I had to buy a ticket from a scalper. It's one of those things where you go and play it by ear. Not here. Not for this. I bought a ticket — and I even got a discount."
The gray-haired Street has been known over the years for his gift for words — a trait he obviously passed to his daughter. He admits that on occasion, he's said too much — and it has gotten him in trouble.
"So I sometimes wonder if I'm teetering between support and baggage."
Because of it, he avoids cameras.
"In Japan, they told me they had a camera in place. I said, 'OK, see you there.' Then I went up among the Japanese where no one knew me and watched.
"I get pretty worked up," he added. "I don't want to be seen on camera. There can be tears of joy or tears of, well, whatever. But here we are again."
Yes, another Olympics for the Streets.
In Lillehammer, Picabo won a silver in the downhill. In Nagano, she won the super-G gold in a race she wasn't expected to win. A month later, she was seriously injured in a skiing accident — few gave her much of a chance of ever competing in a downhill again, let alone in another Olympic speed event.
"But she did it," said Street, the proud father.
"But that's what the Olympics are all about. I know someone who played rugby with my son. He went to France and slept in a barn with goats (to be at the Olympics). Who knows what sacrifices people make to get here. But that's the Olympic spirit."
E-MAIL: grass@desnews.com
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February 11, 2002
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