When she was 10 years old, Lindsey Vonn went to Pierce Skate and Ski in Bloomington, Minn., one day to meet Picabo Street, the newly crowned World Cup downhill champion of 1995. Street signed a poster for Vonn and became, as Vonn puts it now, “my idol.”
Later, Street would become her mentor. She still is, but now they are members of an exclusive club.
Street was the only American to win a World Cup downhill title until Friday, when Vonn became the second with a second-place finish on the 2010 Olympic course at Whistler, British Columbia, missing the top step of the podium by only .01 of a second.
Like Street was in 1995, Vonn is 23 years old, but Street remains Vonn’s idol.
Vonn’s first full season on the World Cup (2001-02) was Street’s last. Vonn was 17 and “stick thin,” fresh out of Ski Club Vail, but Street saw something special in the aspiring downhiller and took Vonn under her wing.
“I was a little pipsqueak,” Vonn said Friday. “I don’t know what she saw in me, but I always was pretty good at speed. I was a little gangly, but I was a good glider. I don’t know why she thought I was going to be good, but she definitely fought for me in the beginning, and she still is behind me to this day.”
Street liked the way Vonn looked her in the eye and paid attention to what she said, which told Street she wanted to be great and was willing to do what it took to succeed.
Street also saw a youngster who was extremely sound technically and had a love for the fall line that can’t be taught — in every event from slalom to downhill.
“As soon as I saw that,” Street said Friday, “I knew it would all line up eventually.”
The late stages of Street’s career were marred by injuries, especially the leg injury suffered in a life-threatening crash at the World Cup finals in 1998. When Vonn suffered a horrific crash in downhill training at the 2006 Olympics, Street rushed to the hospital in Turin.
“She was the first one to the hospital, even before my mom or (husband) Thomas, and she was with me until the wee hours of the morning,” Vonn said. “She always has been confident in me, especially when we were skiing on the team together and I was 16 or 17. She really took me under her wing. She always kind of felt I was going to be the one that took her place when she retired.”
Street likes the way experience has taught Vonn where to be careful and where to take “the bad-boy line,” as she puts it. That breakthrough has made Vonn by far the best downhiller on the tour. Vonn clinched the title with two downhills left on the schedule.
“I think that’s been the difference between sometimes crashing and being consistent, really to know where you can ski that ‘bad-boy line’ and when you have to be smart,” Vonn said. “It’s really important, especially if you’re trying to do well in the overall and get titles, to be consistent. In order to be consistent, you really have to be smart. It’s something that comes with time. The more you ski courses, you get a feeling for where it’s going to be tricky and you have to stay ahead of it, and where you can go straight and take that line no one else can take.”
Now Vonn can target the World Cup overall, the most coveted title in skiing. She holds a 64-point lead over defending champion Nicole Hosp of Austria in the overall standings with 10 races remaining. The only American woman to win the World Cup overall is Tamara McKinney, who did it in 1983.
“This title is a springboard,” Vonn said. “It’s definitely going to give me a lot of confidence. I’m just going to have to set my goals higher.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
