WINTER SPORTS ROUNDUP : Picabo Remains Streets Ahead of Competition

Picabo Street won won her third consecutive World Cup downhill race Sunday in Saalbach, Austria, continuing the dominance of U.S. women downhill skiers this season.

The 23-year-old from Sun Valley, Idaho, insisted the victory--the sixth this season for the American women in seven downhills--was not as easy as most believed it would be.

“I’m a little bit surprised,” she said after finishing in 1 minute 37.87 seconds. “I was lucky.”

Street won her first World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, early this season and added victories in the previous two races, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and Are, Sweden. Teammate Hilary Lindh has the other two American victories.

“You can’t really say this was her kind of course because with four wins, they’re all her kind of course,” said U.S. women’s downhill coach Ernst Hager. “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.”

Street laughed when asked about the secret of her success.

“Maybe it’s because I love what I do,” she said.

By winning, Street, the 1994 Olympic downhill silver medalist, moved 111 points ahead of Lindh in the downhill standings. Lindh was 14th Sunday. German Katja Seizinger, the reigning Olympic champion, is 159 points behind Street with two races remaining--in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, and Bormio, Italy.

“It’s not over yet,” Street said. “In some ways I’m relaxed and in some ways I’m thinking about that crystal globe (that goes to the champion). It’s been a great ride this season (but) I’m not counting on anything yet. They’re still chasing.”

The race had been moved from Saturday to Sunday because of heavy snowfall, and Street did not expect the conditions to be as good as they were.

“I was surprised after the snow, but it was warm enough so they could water the course and it would freeze without becoming a skating rink,” she said.

Street didn’t fare well in the super G that followed a few hours later. Like many other skiers, she missed a sharp left-right combination turn about halfway down the course and was disqualified.

The super G was won by Switzerland’s Heidi Zeller-Baehler, whose victory brought her to within five points of the overall leader, Seizinger, who had a dismal day, finishing 27th in the downhill and 16th in the super G.

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U.S. champion Todd Eldredge took another big step in his comeback season when he beat European champion Ilia Kulik of Russia in qualifying for the World Figure Skating Championships at Birmingham, England. . . . Sergei Shupletsov of Russia finished second to Dominick Gauthier of Canada in the moguls finals of a World Cup freestyle skiing meet in Lillehammer, Norway, but clinched the season title in the event. Donna Weinbrecht of the United States kept her overall lead in women’s moguls standings after finishing second behind Ludmila Dymtchenko of Russia. . . . Germany’s Gunda Niemann won her fourth title in the women’s World All-Around Speedskating Championships in Savalen, Norway. . . . Sven-Erik Danielsson of Sweden won the 71st Vasaloppet, the world’s oldest and longest cross-country ski race, in Mora, Sweden. Danielsson, 35, runner-up two years ago, won the 90-kilometer event in 4 hours, 11 minutes and 9 seconds.