But here Picabo Street stands, near the top of an Andean mountain, clicked into downhill racing skis, ready to hit freeway speeds once again. If she does, she will become the first woman to win medals at three Winter Olympic Games. And she will have done it with legs tattered and torn by crashes spanning more than a decade. And it starts right here, Street's first day back on a downhill race course. But nobody, not even Street, knows how she will react, if she will conquer her doubt and fear, and fling her mended body downhill.
Street looks up at the South American gray winter sky.
It is too dangerous. The flat light has swallowed all the shadows and hidden the course's perilous dips and drops. But other racers are, so American Chad Fleischer takes Street's place in line and lunges into gravity. Six gates into the adjacent men's course, he crashes hard, practically at Street's feet. The accident takes Fleischer out of training and back to the United States, where tests reveal no structural damage to his injured knee.