Picabo's Future In Doubt After Injury

March 13, 1998 / 1:29 PM EST / AP

Picabo Street, her future as a world class skier in doubt because of a badly broken left leg, has been told she can fly home Sunday.

A day after a three-hour operation in which a metal plate was attached to a fragmented bone in the leg, America's best downhill skier was given permission by doctors Saturday to return to the United States.

"Our plan is to fly her home Sunday," said Nadia Guerriero, a member of Street's management team. "We are trying to make the special arrangements needed to get her out of Sion tomorrow, but it's not easy."

Guerriero said Street will fly to Colorado.

Street broke her left femur in a spill in the closing downhill of the season at the World Cup finals.

Orthopedic surgeons called the operation a "success" and estimate recovery should take about six months.

Recovery, however, does not necessarily mean a successful return to skiing.

"We'll know in a few months," said Patrick Ravussin, chief anesthesiologist at the Hospital de Champsec in Sion.

"A simple break is easier to recover from than something like her ligament injury. However, a complex fracture, in this case, a multiple fracture, is hard to put back together. Her bone was fragmented in several places."

However, doctors said the left knee ligaments Street tore in a spill at Vail, Colo., at the start of the 1996 season, appear intact.

That injury sidelined her until earlier this season, but she came back to win a gold medal at the Nagano Olympics.

"We can easily imagine that she will overcome this as she overcame her last ligament injury," said Ravussin. "But to know when or how she will make her return to skiing is difficult at this point."

Street's teammate Kristina Koznick, runner-up in the World Cup slalom standings, did not seem optimistic about a second comeback for the 27-year-old Street.

"She is a fighter so I can't imagine her giving up and saying it is over," said Koznick. "But, sometimes it is enough. I would say it is going to be fifty-fifty really."

A lot will depend on Street's state of mind, and Guerriero described her as being in good spirits.

The skier's room is filled with cards, flowers and chocolates, and Street has received several phone calls from her parents and visits from her coaches.

"She was smiling today," said Guerriero.

But Ravussin said it often takes a day for reality to sink in.

"The first day the patient is not always conscious of what is happening," said Ravussin. "It is usually only a day or two later that depression sets in."

Street, who lives in Portland, Ore., earlier this week said she had hoped to reclaim next year the World Cup downhill title she won in 1995 and 1996.