Street expected to miss World Cup race after surgery

Picabo Street's return to World Cup skiing will be delayed at least two weeks because of knee surgery.

Picabo Street's return to World Cup skiing will be delayed at least two weeks because of knee surgery.

The reigning women's Olympic super-G champion had arthroscopic surgery on Tuesday to repair torn cartilage in her left knee.

She will miss next week's super-G race in Aspen, and US Ski Team officials were unsure if her 2000 World Cup debut would be November 30 in Lake Louise, Alberta, or December 6 in Val d'Isere, France.

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

Kelly said the surgery was "quite routine" and Street was doing well after the procedure at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Vail.

Street has been out of competition since she broke her right leg and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during a crash at the World Cup Finals in Switzerland in March 1998.

She resumed training six months ago and hoped to compete in several World Cup events this season.

Street, in her 13th year as a member of the US Ski Team, won the gold medal in the super-G in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. She took the silver in the downhill in Lillehammer, Norway, four years earlier.

Street, 29, also won the downhill title at the World Championships in 1996, and was the World Cup downhill champion in 1995 and 1996.