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ELON, N.C. – A year after making her original visit, former United States Olympic gold-medal skier Picabo Street returned to Elon University to speak with student-athletes on Thursday, March 7, inside the Alumni Field House. Street visited with members of Elon’s athletic teams to discuss dealing with and overcoming injuries, being confident and communicating with others to be successful within and outside of sports.
 
“In a team atmosphere, you have to communicate with each other,” Street said. “It is essential to know what is going on with each another at all times. You build a trust with your teammates through communication and team camaraderie in order to be successful. That’s the same mentality that you will have to have progressively throughout your life, not just in sports.”
 
Street battled injuries throughout her career, including several concussions and a broken femur in her final race of the 1998 season. Following two years of rehabilitation after the injury, Street returned to racing in 2000 and retired from international competition after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.
 
“You have to have a handle on your own team,” Street added. “You have to put more pressure on and expect more out of yourself than anyone else because that is what you owe to your teammates.”
 
Street joined the United State Ski Team in 1989 at the age of 17. After earning the silver medal in the downhill at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lilliehammer, Norway, Street went on to earn the gold in the Super G at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
 
Street became the first American woman to win the World Cup season title in the downhill in 1995 and did so again a year later. In all, Street won a total of nine World Cup downhill races during her career. She was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2004.