I love it. As a toddler she bolted from the car on a family vacation and ran to the rim of the Grand Canyon before her mother, Dee, could haul her back. She spent much of her childhood pursuing her brother, Baba, in breakneck chases on skis down the mountains near their Sun Valley, Idaho, home. As soon as one race ended, the next began. Street crashed while training in Vail, Colo., tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
Most skiers believe it takes two years to recover from ACL reconstruction.
The physical healing was relatively easy. Just before Thanksgiving, barely more than 11 months after her fall, Street worked in Vail with Andreas Rickenbach, the U.S. women's assistant downhill and Super G coach. Street's psyche responded more slowly. She usually is bursting with confidence, but through early January she trained in an old purple uniform rather than her new, iridescent yellow one, so she wouldn't be easily identified. At last, on Jan. 18, she wore her yellow suit and cranked up the hip-hop on her headphones.