Olympic Champ Breaks Leg Gold Medalist Picabo Street Crashes In Last Race Of The Season

Picabo Street sacrificed a second Olympic gold medal last month rather than reinjure her left leg. On Friday she realized her worst fears in her last race of the season: She broke it.

Street lost control on a jump and her left ski released from the binding upon impact with the icy racing surface. She flew into the safety netting and then grabbed her left leg, screaming in pain.

“She came off the jump and she was fine. Then she sat back coming out of a turn and crashed about 50 meters below me,” said Herwig Demschar, coach of the U.S. women’s team who was standing alongside the downhill course.

Street underwent nearly three hours of surgery so doctors could set her femur bone and secure it with a metal plate screwed into the bone, said Patrick Ravussin, chief anesthesiologist at the Hospital de Champsec in Sion, about 20 miles from the race site.

“We put one plate and 8-10 screws in her femur,” said Dr. Robert Scheinberg of Dallas, who assisted in the operation.

Street might return to the United States as early as next week but there was no immediate word on how long she would be off skis. Ravussin suggested only that it would be “many months.”

The 26-year-old Idaho native’s victory in the Olympic super-G race came only 14 months after reconstructive surgery on her left knee.