Road to Olympic Super-G Ends in Tears for Street

Hiding her face, Picabo Street sat in the snow and cried.

She finished 33rd in a World Cup super-G race Friday at Cortina D’ampezzo, Italy, meaning she won’t get a chance to defend her Olympic title at the Salt Lake City Games.

It was Street’s fourth consecutive poor World Cup showing in the super-G and prevented her from making the U.S. team in that event. She did qualify for the Olympics in the downhill.

“You know, I was thinking at the top today that this is my last super-G,” said Street, who will race in today’s downhill, then skip World Cup events next week in Are, Sweden.

Hilde Gerg of Germany won Friday’s race in 1 minute 17.20 seconds, edging Renate Goetschl of Austria by 0.01 seconds.

Street was 2.61 seconds behind, then sat nearly motionless for 10 minutes in the finish area, sobbing. A young teammate, Jonna Mendes, finally came to lead Street away as other skiers continued to arrive.

Street, 30, eventually smiled.

“This is just me being me,” she said.

“You know, my best maybe just isn’t good enough. And that’s OK, that’s human.”

Street will have her shot at an Olympic medal in the downhill, which has been her best event, the surprise super-G gold at the 1998 Nagano Games notwithstanding.

Mendes said Street has a good chance to add to the downhill silver medal she won at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, five years after recovering from her first knee injury.

“Downhill is still where it’s at for Picabo,” Mendes said. “Now she can focus only on that and ski fast.”

Street has made it clear this is her final season but has wavered on whether she’ll retire immediately after the Salt Lake City Games or after the World Cup circuit finishes later in 2002.

“Nothing,” Street said, “is definite.”

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The messy fight on the U.S. women’s bobsled team ended when Jen Davidson withdrew her complaint against driver Jean Racine.

Davidson had protested when Racine abruptly replaced her a week before the Olympic trials in December, and she asked an arbitration judge Thursday to allow her a chance to make the team.

The arbitration hearing was conducted near the team’s training site in San Diego.

“The athletes are back to training,” Matt Roy, director of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, said late Friday night.

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J.J. Thomas and Sandra Van Ert earned wild-card spots when coaches completed the roster for the U.S. Olympic snowboard team.

Twelve of the 14 spots were predetermined, based on results in qualifying events over the last several months.

Ross Powers and Shannon Dunn, winners of bronze medals in the 1998 Olympics, were the top qualifiers on the half pipe team. Jeff Greenwood and Rosey Fletcher were the top qualifiers on the parallel giant slalom.

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Bobsledder Dave Owens was suspended from Olympic competition for two years after testing positive for a banned steroid, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said.

Owens, 33, of Tulsa, Okla., tested positive for testosterone in July. He was undergoing testosterone replacement therapy for testicular cancer and applied for a waiver from the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission in April. The waiver was denied. Owens has retired from the sport.

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France beat Norway by nearly 2 minutes in a Biathlon World Cup 30-kilometer women’s relay at Anterselva, Italy. Slovakia was third, China fourth.

The U.S. team of Carolyn Tracy, Jill Krause, Tracy Barnes and Lanny Barnes was 13th of 14 teams, 8:20 off the pace.