Just marching in the festive event is something of a miracle for Street. The former gold medallist has battled her way back to her third Olympics after a devastating injury to both legs in a crash sustained shortly after the Nagano Games. Being the flag bearer is always an honor, but toting the Stars and Stripes on home turf this year would be huge–even if it’s not the famous flag from the World Trade Center. “It could potentially become the greatest moment in my career,” says Street.
On Wednesday Street even upped her all-American credentials by unveiling a new superpatriotic design for her ski helmet. It’s got stars and stripes and a bald eagle on the front, U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets on the left side and the Statue of Liberty on the right.
Picking the flag bearer is like “a beauty contest,” Street admits. Or maybe like voting for homecoming queen. Teams of athletes in each sport nominate one captain from their ranks. Wednesday night, the captains will meet to select their ultimate choice. Though Street, now 30, hasn’t always coexisted peacefully with her skiing teammates, she mended fences well enough to get their bid in 1998–and the nod from the rest of the U.S. team. But she had to decline the honor: she’d suffered a concussion in a ski crash just a week before the Nagano Games opened. “I just have to trust that I’m the most worthy in my fellow Olympians’ eyes,” she says. Her arduous four-year comeback is certainly an inspiring but she also acknowledges that there are other deserving athletes–Jim Shea Jr., perhaps, the third-generation Olympian and skeleton daredevil whose grandfather was recently killed in a car accident. If she doesn’t get the nod, “I’m not going to go home and cry about it,” Street says. “I’ve got my avenues of redemption.”
Of course, Street got some of that crying out of the way last month after disappointing World Cup finishes bounced her from a slot on the Super G team–and the chance to defend her ‘98 gold medal. “I’m a competitive person, and I would love to be out there defending my medal,” Street admits. She did qualify in the downhill, usually her strongest event, and will hit the course at Snowbasin next Monday. Even so, the fallout from her horrific 1998 crash still dogs her. Though, Street insists she’s shaken the fear that she experienced after the crash, she’s still adjusting to the new-shape skis that became popular during her rehab. “That’s taken my sensation out of the sport a little bit,” she says, complaining that her “feel” of where her skis rest on the snow is no longer as relevant. And she’s still struggling to control her skis during turns–a factor that could hamper her on the curvy top part of the Snowbasin course. But Street has beaten that course before. She won a race there last spring, trumping many of the same skiers she’ll face next week. Though Street hasn’t won a race since, she remains confident. “I have just as good a chance as anyone,” says Street, who is sporting a shiny engagement ring from fiance John Mulligan, a ski-waxing technician for fellow skier Kristina Koznick.
Though Street had pledged to retire after the Olympics, she hedged her bets on Tuesday. “I don’t know what my heart will say at the end of the day on the 11th,” she says. “It will definitely be my final Olympics. I want to get married. I want to build a house. I want to stop traveling and packing.” But she left open the possibility she’d compete in a few more races. And even when she does finally hang up her skis, Street might not hang up her helmet. “If I were to jump over and do any other sport right now, it would probably be NASCAR,” she says. Jeff Gordon look out.
