Skier Street Undergoes Cartilage Repair

By Tom Keppeler, Knee1 Staff

Picabo Street's grand re-entrance to professional skiing will be delayed at least two weeks while she recovers from arthroscopic knee surgery.

Street, the reigning women's Olympic Super-G champion and two-time World Cup champion, underwent surgery November 14 in Vail. While at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, Street had a tear in her cartilage repaired.

Street is no stranger to knee troubles. In a World Cup Finals race in 1998, she crashed, breaking her right leg and tearing her Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Street has rehabilitated the knee ever since, and resumed training about six months ago. She hoped to compete in several World Cup events this season, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

According to the AP, Street will miss next week's super-G race in Aspen. U.S. Ski Team officials could not tell if her 2000 World Cup debut would be Nov. 30 in Lake Louise, Alberta, or Dec. 6 in Val d'Isere, France.

"She will miss Aspen and, from there, it's hard to say," U.S. Ski Team spokesman Tom Kelly told the AP Wednesday. "Her return had never been definite. Whether she's back for Lake Louise or Val d'Isere is really up in the air."

Kelly also said the skier was recovering well from the routine operation.