Video Transcript »
Picabo Street: Exclusive Interview
Editor's Note: MountainZone.com's World Cup correspondent Manuèle Lang met up with Picabo in Aspen, where she was still resting up after knee surgery 10 days earlier.

Questions by Manuèle Lang:
Can you explain what you're doing here with Charles Schwab?

Picabo Street:
Well, Charles Schwab is the title sponsor for a young racing program we have in America called NASTAR. It's actually a very strong program. It's the biggest young racing program we have in America, actually it's the largest world-wide. And what we're hoping to do is bring Charles Schwab in as the title sponsor, introduce it to a lot more people, make it more available, and then hopefully have more kids coming up onto the national team from there. And basically fatten our selection so that we've got a lot more kids to choose from, and a lot more athletes coming onto the national team, and hopefully make America more of a force, especially after 2002.

Manuèle:
Well actually I thought I would be seeing you here on the podium, not here marketing.

Picabo:
I know, and I probably would have had a place on the podium today if I had been racing, but it's more important that I can go all the way through the season, and then all the way through the Olympics in 2002.

I might have had a stop-go, stop-go kind of a schedule if I had not gotten my knee fixed 10 days ago. So I think it was the right decision to make, and I'm just a little more hungry than I was yesterday, after the race today, because I can see what the snow conditions were like, and the course was set well, and it was technical, which is favoring me now as well. So I can be patient if everybody else can.

Manuèle:
When are you going to come back?

Picabo:
I'm going to come back for December 6th in Val d'Isere, France. That will be my first race. It was my first race after my last injury, and it will be my first race back this time, and my goal is a top-10 finish there, so I think that's definitely do-able. I like that hill. It's nice and subtle and it flows with the mountain, and so I think it's going to be a good place to start — not as much pressure on me as I'd have here in America. And then I can go on to St. Moritz and race the downhills there. Then take a nice block over Christmas, get my downhill really tightened up and really strong, and then drop the hammer for two months straight over in Europe, and then finish up strong in Åre at the finals and then be back next season to challenge for my downhill title.

Manuèle:
So the big question is how do you feel, physically, now?

Picabo:
I feel really good physically. I felt great before my surgery, and so it was really tough to go in there being physically so strong and go in and have surgery. It was a little bit tough on me mentally and emotionally, but I made it through it no problem. It was really an easy surgery. I walked out of there that afternoon, I was a little bit sore that evening, but then I've been up and moving and training three times a day since then. So I'm trying to keep my strength up, and keep my spirits up, more so. Today actually raised my spirits more than lowered them which was something I had expected would happen.

Manuèle:
You still have some words to say for the ski World Cup?

Picabo:
Oh, yeah, I definitely have some things to still be telling people and to be feeling inside, because I want to control myself and my destiny in the sport all the way through to the end now. So I'll be making decisions accordingly.

Manuèle:
Thank you very much.

Picabo:
You're welcome. Thanks.