Named after a local Native American word for “shiny waters,” Picabo, 22, was born at home in Triumph, Idaho, an old mining town where her parents tended a garden, chickens and rabbits. At the age of 6, Picabo won her first race, at nearby Sun Valley. “She’s been a risk-taker from the start,” says her mother, Dee. “My quest has been to keep her alive.”
Between kindercup and Olympics has come economic sacrifice–scrounging gas money by collecting soft-drink bottles and parental coaching. When coach Paul Major booted Picabo off the U.S. team in 1990 for lack of commitment, her father, Ron a stonemason, took over, demanding 100 sit-ups and 50 push-ups morning and night. Picabo credits her success to her parents’ blend of discipline and freedom. “They’d let us splatter into a brick wall so we could see how it felt,” she says. “They’d smile and say, ‘Do you believe me now?’”
With world-class skiers, a medal turns on who has the great run of the day. The American women have been turning in top-10 finishes in downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super G and combined. Although previous world-beaters Julie Parisien and Diann Roffe-Steinrotter have skied inconsistently, “most of us are doing much better,” says Hilary Lindh, 24, who won a silver in the 1992 Olympics downhill. Alaska’s Lindh is coming back from knee surgery and last week won a downhill at Sierra Nevada, Spain. If she becomes the first U.S. woman skier to win medals at consecutive Olympics, the distinction could erase her only visible handicap: there are other Hilarys but only one Picabo.
