Americans Thwart Canadians : Skiing: Street, Parisien finish 1-2 in women’s super-G at U.S. Alpine Championships.

Two Americans on emotional missions took the sting out of another Canadian ski party Friday at the Subaru U.S. Alpine Championships.

Picabo Street, a free spirit and Alberto Tomba wanna-be who was suspended from the U.S. team in 1990 for general flakiness, continued her hot streak when she won the women’s super-giant slalom with a time of 1:23.15.

Street, who finished third in Thursday’s downhill despite fighting a virus, is obviously still riding the high of her silver-medal performance in combined at the recent World Championships.

The 21-year-old from Sun Valley, Ida., has emerged as the rising star of the U.S. team. But she has by no means lost her edge.

“Basically, I don’t like people telling me what to do,” she said.

She has, however, in recent months been able to button her lip long enough to let her skis do the talking.

Street was sent home from the U.S. ski team’s summer training program in 1990 and was told to get her act together.

Soon after, her father, Stubby, a bricklayer, took his daughter with him on a contract to Hawaii, during which time he taught her the value of a hard day’s work and a few thousand sit-ups.

“I’ll always be a free spirit, no one’s ever going to change that,” Street said.

But she has seemingly found the dedication necessary to win.

The only shame of her victory was that she denied a win for second-place finisher Julie Parisien, who has scaled a few emotional mountains since her brother’s death in an automobile accident right before Christmas.

Parisien’s finish in the super-G, not even her best event, speaks of her intent to ski the rest of the season for her late brother, Jean Paul.

She started the dedication in Japan, when she captured the silver medal at the worlds and then complained afterward that her brother would have expected more.

Parisien tried to explain how she has turned grief into success.

“It’s my family, and being totally honest with myself, and confronting every single demon that I have, and doing it in the span of a month,” she said. “I’ve learned to confront everything in order to be successful, you can’t be afraid to feel anything, you can’t be afraid to think anything. It’s just mental toughness, too.”

Parisien, though, does allow herself periods of grief.

“You have to have a breakdown,” she said. “I’ll sit in my room and cry for four or five hours. That washes it away. It’s not something I let build.”

Street and Parisien prevented another sweep for Canadians Cary Mullen and Lindsey Roberts, who stole the men’s and women’s downhill titles from the United States on Thursday.

Mullen followed up his downhill win with a victory in the men’s super-G, with a winning time of 1:14.56.

For the second day in a row, he defeated American Tommy Moe, the runner-up again with a time of 1:15.25.

By the luck of the draw, Moe had the disadvantage of being the first skier down the soft super-G course.

His opening time, however, held up for nine more runs before Mullen entered the starting gate.

“It’s kind of a bummer when someone from another country wins your national championships,” Moe said.

Another Canadian, Roman Torn, took third.

It was also another great day for Roberts, who followed her win in the downhill with a third place finish in the super-G, remarkable in that she was seeded 47th on the course.

Her dramatic run came at the expense of American Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, who was bumped into fourth place.