Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Picabo Street's Long Road Back To The Olympics

Aired February 11, 2002 - 05:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Have you been watching the Olympics? Well, if you have, you know the 2002 Games got off to a great start this weekend with an Olympic sized sharing of the wealth.

Austria tops a medal count with a total of five. The United States and Germany both have won three medals. Norway and Finland have two, but, hey, it's early.

Kelly Clark -- let's talk about an American gold medal winner. She won the first gold medal for the United States. Clark won the women's half pipe in the snowboarding competition at Park City yesterday. The 18-year-old was the last competitor on the pipe. She flew higher and had more dangerous jumps, registering a score of 47.9. Yes, I don't understand the scoring either, don't worry.

American athletes also picked up two silver medals. Skier Bahrke, who nearly died three years ago from a staph infection, won the silver in the women's freestyle mogul Saturday. And speed skater Derek Parra picked up another silver for the United States. He broke the world record in the 5,000 meter speed skating competition, but he was edged out by the Dutch gold winner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK PARRA, U.S. SPEED SKATER: I started getting tired with about four to go and the crowd started chanting "USA!" and it just gave me a little more energy and I just kept pumping a little harder and a little harder and I came across with a world record and it was just an unbelievable feeling to come away with the silver in my first race in the Olympics is just, it's a dream come true.

I come to work every day, you know, and dream about something like this happening. And, you know, you talk with these associates all day. They're behind you a hundred percent. I've had some bad days on the ice. You know, they're there to cheer you up. Then to come back and have this happen like it did, it's just, it's like a dream come true. This is what the Olympics are all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, that's so awesome. And, you know, we all chant "CNN! CNN!" before air time. It gives us the spirit to go on.

OK, let's talk about American skier Picabo Street. She will try to add another medal to her gold and silver in the women's downhill today. She's had to overcome some physical setbacks in preparing for these Winter Games.

CNN's Phil Jones has a profile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Picabo Street is no ordinary skier of stock answers and bland rhetoric. The inner monologue can often become her outer dialogue, as with frank admissions of a torturous return from a second shattering injury.

PICABO STREET, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: It was a tough year for me last year, for sure, and I spent a lot more time beating myself up mentally than I probably should have, expecting more of myself than I should have and therefore prolonging my, you know, my results, my physical results. I had a lot of fear on board that I was having to deal with and get past and I was beating myself up for how long that was taking. So I kind of had a, you know, a double whammy on me any time I was attempting something. I had this, you know, pessimistic little guy standing there with his hands on his hips going you're not doing it right.

JONES: Having overcome a torn left knee in 1996 to win Olympic Super G gold two years later, Picabo broke a thigh bone and blew out her right knee barely a month later, six surgeries in two years. The course back to Salt Lake City has been a treacherous one.

STREET: Physically I had an easier time coming back this latest recovery than I did mentally. I think physically I had some road maps to follow, but the mental gain, the psychological gain is ever changing.

JONES: America's Olympic express never short on revealing words or transparent emotion.

STREET: I don't come in here like all worked up and uptight at all about walking away with a medal. I mean yes, it'd be great and I've experienced it and it's a wonderful thing and I would love to experience it again, but it's not what drives me every day. It's not what gets me out of bed and sends me out there in the cold and, you know, keeps me out there for six hours trying to make the perfect turn. It's, there's a lot of other things that drive me and there's a lot of other things that make me happy. And so yes, I know that if I hadn't had my success in Nagano, for sure I would be a little more uptight and I would have more pressure on myself. But, you know, I want to enjoy the show.

JONES: I'm Phil Jones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com