1 Day Out: Picabo thinks Vonn will ski

VANCOUVER - Picabo Street has yet to talk to her friend and fellow downhill world champion Lindsey Vonn. But she is confident that Vonn will overcome her shin injury and compete at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"My prediction is she'll rise above this," said Street, who is in Vancouver to not only watch Olympic competition but also help kick-off McDonald's participation in the 2010 Olympics.

"I think she'll still walk out of here with a couple of medals," added Street, who earned a silver medal in downhill at the Lillihammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games, then won a gold in super G at the 1998 Nagano Games. Street has also won the downhill at the 1996 World Championships.

Vonn gets another day to rest after downhill training was canceled today due to fog and snow at Whistler - although it was not canceled in time to save American Stacey Cook, who got back off a jump and landed heavily in the fences. She was evacuated by helicopter, but there is no immediate update on her status.

Street admitted that Vonn faces a tough road in the next two weeks, especially in a sport where gold medals are won - or lost - by 1/100th of a second.

At the 1998 Olympics, Street beat Michaela Dorfmeister from Austria by 1/100th in the super G to win her gold medal.

But Street knows her friend and knows that she won't step into the starting gate unless she knows that she can win.

"She didn't step in the starting gate in Torino thinking she wasn't going to win either," said Street, referring to Vonn's crash in downhill training that sent her to the hospital. Vonn finished eighth in the 2006 Olympic downhill in Torino.

Street also credited Vonn for her decision to admit to the press that she is injured. Vonn bruised the muscles in her right shin in slalom training last week in Austria. She told the press yesterday that the injury is worse than she has ever experienced before, and that it could possibly hinder her skiing.

"That's how Lindsey is as a person, as a role model, and as the entertainment, if you will, at the Games," said Street. "She was cool enough to let everyone in on what's going on with her, so that they're up to speed on what they're watching and how she can genuinely compete. She wants everybody to know.

"It's not some, 'Oh, I've got a boo-boo, I might not do well,' kind of thing. That's not what's going on here. (She's saying), 'Here's reality. It sucks and I'm sorry. But we're going to roll with it and see what we can do.' She is just being courteous to us and bringing us up to speed on where she's at."

Street said that it will be "really phenomenal if Lindsey pulls off a medal, and I think she can."

"I'm still praying for her to, and I'm still hoping for her to, and I'm still expecting her to," Street added. "But I love her no matter what she does."

At the McDonald's kick-off party in the Main Press Center in Vancouver, Street won a medal of her own this morning. She competed in a smoothie-making challenge to highlight the Real Fruit Smoothies that the restaurant will launch in summer 2010.

The competition was divided into three teams of two kids each and a celebrity captain. Street, Shawn Johnson, and Cassie Campbell - who captained the Canadian women's hockey team to two Olympic gold medals - were the three smoothie team captains.

Johnson's team won, thanks to what Ronald McDonald (yes, the clown) called "four gallons of honey." And Campbell's team finished second.

After suffering an equipment failure and having to scurry to pour their mango-strawberry-kiwi concoction into a new blender, Street's team finished third.

"The bronze I've always wanted!" she joked.

She also joked that the blender malfunction made her feel like she did in a World Cup downhill in Narvik, Norway, in 1996, where her goggles broke as she was getting ready to start. Her mechanic gave her the pair that she usually wore on the podium, but the strap was loose on one side.

"So here I am on the course with one side of the goggles squeezing (my helmet) and the other side flopping," she said. "So I literally tucked my poles (under my arms) and adjusted my strap as I was going across a side-hill on course."

And how did she do? "I won," she said.

She was not so lucky in the smoothie challenge. And no word from the three judges - one of whom was Olympic figure skating gold medalist Katarina Witt - on how the Street team smoothie tasted. Witt sipped the "taupe-colored" smoothie that Street's team had created and neither smiled nor winced.

McDonald's is the official restaurant of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and Don Thompson, McDonald's president and chief operating officer, said the restaurant has been involved with the Olympics since the company airlifted food to American athletes who craved it at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France.

USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun confirmed this story, adding that McDonald's "has been fueling our team for our 40 years, and we're very very proud."

"McDonald's has been much more than just a sponsor," Blackmun said. "They've been a fantastic partner in the true sense of the word partnership." 

Peggy Shinn is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

Tags: Alpine Ski, Cassie Campbell, Lindsey Vonn, McDonalds, McDonald’s, Picabo Street, Shawn Johnson, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games